THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  LANDFALL  OF  COLUMBUS 


THE  LAST  RESTING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS 


By  RUDOLF  CRONAU 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  LANDFALL  OF  COLUMBUS 


THE  LAST  RESTING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS 

Two  Monographs,   based   on  Personal   Investigations 

by  T^udolf  Cronau 

With     Reproductions     of     Maps,     Inscriptions     and 
Autographs,  and  of  Original  Drawings  by  the  Author. 


PUBLISHED  BY  R.  CRONAU 

340  EAST  198-TH   STREET,   NEW  YORK 
1921 


COPYRIGHT  1921 
BY  RUDOLF  CHONAU 


This  book  is  No.   / 0         of  a  special 
edition  limited  to  three  hundred  copies. 


I  ihrarv 

(.Ul 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  LANDFALL  OF  COLUMBUS 


By  RUDOLF  CRONAU 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 
AND  THE  LANDFALL  OF  COLUMBUS 


[ISTORIC  splendour  surrounds  the  name  of  that 
island  where  inhabitants  of  the  old  world  for  the 
first  time  met  aborigines  of  the  new.  Yet  we  must 
confess  with  shame  that  so  far  it  has  been  impos 
sible  to  point  out  conclusively  the  particular  island  on  whose 
shore  this  memorable  event  took  place." 

These  were  the  words,  with  which  in  1890,  when  all  human 
ity  began  to  prepare  for  the  celebration  of  the  four-hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  an 
eminent  scholar  characterized  the  "Guanahani  -  Question," 
perhaps  the  most  interesting  problem  in  all  history.  Indeed, 
no  other  question  has  been  so  baffling  and  caused  such  con 
troversy.  Numerous  ingenious  students  have  tried  to  solve 
it,  but  the  sole  agreement  reached  by  their  arduous  investiga 
tions  was  that  the  landfall  of  Columbus  took  place  at  one  of 
those  many  islands,  which  stretch  from  the  south-eastern  coast 
of  Florida  toward  Hayti,  and  are  known  as  the  Lucayos  or 
Bahamas.  Everything  beyond  this  meagre  result  remained 
doubtful,  and  the  opinions  as  to  which  of  these  islands  might 
be  identical  with  Guanahani,  differed  widely. 

This  unsatisfactory  state  of  affairs  has  been  caused  by 
several  peculiar  circumstances. 

1.  The  original  log-book  or  journal,  kept  by  Columbus 
during  his  memorable  voyage,  has  disappeared.  Also  all 
charts  he  made  of  his  discoveries.  The  only  source,  scholars 
could  rely  upon,  in  the  pursuit  of  their  investigations,  were 
extracts  of  the  journal,  furnished  by  Bishop  Las  Casas,  the 
famous  contemporary  of  Columbus.  When  Las  Casas  was 
engaged  in  writing  his  "Historia  de  las  Indias,"  which  covers 
the  period  from  1492  to  1520,  he  had  before  him  the  original 


log-book  of  Columbus,  and  from  this  document  he  excerpted 
the  words  of  the  admiral  literally  from  October  12th,  the  time 
of  the  landfall  at  Guanahaiii,  to  October  29th.  Inestimable 
as  these  extracts  are  they  lack,  however,  just  those  statements, 
which  would  make  the  identification  of  Guanahani  very  easy: 
the  astronomic  observations  Columbus  had  made  about  the 
position  of  those  islands  discovered  by  him  during  his  journey. 
That  such  statements  were  included  in  the  original  log-book, 
we  must  assume  as  a  matter  of  fact.  But  unfortunately  Las 
Casas  omitted  to  include  them  in  his  extracts,  probably  in  the 
belief  that  they  would  not  interest  the  general  public. 

2.  The  Bahama  archipelago,  containing  no  gold  or  other 
riches,  was  very  rarely  visited  by  the  Spaniards  during  the 
16th  century.    After  having  carried  off  the  natives,  who  were 
compelled  to  work  in  the  gold  mines  of  Espanola,  the  Spanish 
conquerers  paid  no  attention  thereafter  to  these  out-of-the-way 
islands.     As  a  result  not  only  did  the  melodious  names  used 
by  the  natives  for  the  different  islands  vanish  from  memory, 
but  also  the  names  which  Columbus  had  given  to  those  places 
discovered  by  him.      Likewise  on  the  maps  the  outlines  and 
positions  of  the  numerous  islands  became  in  time  very  vague 
and  incorrect.    The  confusion  grew  when,  during  the  17th  and 
18th  centuries,  the   Bahamas  became  the   lurking  places  of 
English  pirates.    These  rough  buccaneers,  out  for  prey  and 
plunder  only,  bestowed  upon  many  of  the  islands  those  names 
which  are  still  in  use  to-day,  but  have  no  relation  to  the  past. 

3.  To  the  many  difficulties  caused  by  the  aforesaid  cir 
cumstances  has  to  be  added  the  fact  that  the  Bahama  arch 
ipelago  consists  of  no  less  than  29  large  islands,  661  islets  or 
cays,  and  2387  rocks  and  reefs.    As  their  formation  is  every 
where  the  same,  namely  calcareous  rocks  of  coral  and  shell 
hardened  into  limestone,  so  they  are  in  general  character  and 
appearance  very  much  alike. 

4.  Special  maps  showing  all  the  details  of  the  many  islands 
of  the  Bahama  archipelago  do  not  exist.      Even  the  charts 
published  by  the  British  Admiralty  are  in  many  respects  in 
sufficient,  as  they  consider  the  demands  of  the  mariner  only. 


In  view  of  all  these  circumstances  no  one  can  be  surprised 
at  the  widely  differing  views  and  results  obtained  by  scholars 
in  their  various  attempts  to  solve  the  Guanahani- Question. 

A  brief  enumeration  of  these  attempts  may  follow  here. 

It  was  in  1731  that  Catesby  in  his  "Natural  History  of 
Carolina"  expressed  the  opinion,  that  Guanahani  and  Cat 
Island  might  be  identical.  Knox,  editor  of  "The  New  Col 
lection  of  Voyages  and  Travels"  (1767),  advanced  a  similar 
view.  So  did  De  la  Roquette  in  his  French  version  of 
Navarrete's  "Coleccion  de  los  Yiages  y  descubrimientos" 
(1828).  And  he  wras  followed  by  Baron  de  Montlezun  in  the 
"Nouvelles  annales  des  voyages"  (1828-1829). 

When  Washington  Irving  planned  his  biography  of  Col 
umbus,  he  asked  Alexander  S.  Mackenzie,  an  officer  of  the 
U.  S.  Navy,  to  make  a  study  of  the  Guanahani-Question. 
The  results  of  his  investigations  were  accepted  by  Irving  and 
with  his  book  found  world- wide  circulation.  And  when 
Alexander  von  Humboldt  in  "Kritische  Untersuchungen" 
also  became  an  advocate  for  Cat  Island  the  weight  of 
Humboldt's  name  was  the  real  cause  for  naming  Cat  Island 
San  Salvador  on  the  majority  of  the  maps  of  the  19th  century. 

In  contrast  with  those  views  M.  F.  de  Navarrete,  the  author 
of  "Coleccion  de  los  Viages  y  Descubrimientos"  (Madrid 
1825)'  advanced  arguments  in  favor  of  Grand  Turk,  an  island 
belonging  to  the  Caicos  group.  Samuel  Kettle  in  "Personal 
narrative  of  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus"  (Boston  1827) 
and  George  Gibbs  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  New  York 
Historical  Society"  of  1846,  and  in  the  "Historical  Magazine" 
of  June  1858,  argued  for  the  same  island.  So  did  R.  H. 
Major  in  the  first  edition  of  "Select  letters  of  Columbus" 
(1847). 

Several  years  later,  however,  in  the  summer  of  1864,  F.  A. 
de  Varnhagen  published  in  Santiago  de  Chile  a  treatise  "La 
verdadera  Guanahani,"  in  which  he  expressed  his  belief  that 
the  island  Mariguana  might  be  entitled  to  the  name  Guana 
hani. 


10 

The  American  captain  Gustavus  V.  Fox,  author  of  the 
monograph:  "An  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  first 
landing  place  of  Columbus  in  the  New  World,"  came  to  the 
conclusion,  that  Samana  might  be  the  scene  of  the  landfall. 
His  investigations  appeared  in  1880  as  a  U.  S.  Coast  Survey 
Report. 

Also  W ailing' s  Island  has  been  suggested;  first  by  J.  P. 
Munoz  in  his  "Historia  del  Nuevo  Mundo"  (Madrid  1793)  ; 
then  by  A.  B.  Becher  in  his  book  "The  Landfall  of  Columbus" 
(London  1856)  ;  furthermore  by  O.  Peschel  in  "Geschichte 
des  Zeitalters  der  Entdeckungen"  (Stuttgart  1858)  ;  also  by 
R.  H.  Major  in  the  "Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  of  1871 ;  by  J.  B.  Murdock  in  the  monograph  pub 
lished  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Naval  Institute"  of 
1884;  and,  finally  by  R.  Pietschmann  in  "Zeitschrift  fuer 
wissenschaftliche  Geographic,"  1880. 

It  must  be  emphasized  here,  that  with  the  exception  of  the 
U.  S.  captain  J.  V.  Fox,  none  of  the  above  mentioned  writers 
ever  had  an  opportunity  to  visit  the  Bahama  Islands  and  to 
study  the  Guanahani-Question  on  the  spot.  All  had  been 
compelled  to  rely  on  Las  Casas'  extracts  of  the  journal  of 
Columbus  and  on  such  maps,  as  they  were  able  to  obtain. 
But  as  even  the  sea  charts  of  to-day  are  in  many  respects 
insufficient,  the  widely  differing  views  obtained  in  the  many 
attempts  to  identify  Guanahani  cannot  surprise  us. 

So  the  Guanahani-Question  remained  in  doubt.  All  that 
Justin  Winsor,  the  American  historian,  felt  justified  in  saying 
in  his  well  known  book  on  Columbus  was  that  "the  opinion  of 
scholars  has  been  drifting  towards  a  belief  that  the  landfall 
was  on  Watling's  Island." 

Such  was  the  situation  when  in  1890  the  author  of  this 
essay,  for  many  years  deeply  interested  in  American  affairs, 
became  engaged  in  writing  a  history  of  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World.*) 


*)    R.  Cronau,  "Amerika,  die  Geschiohte   seiner  Entdeckung."     2   vols.   with  37 
maps   and  545    illustrations.     Leipzig,   1892. 

R.  Cronau,  "America,  Historia  de  su  descubrimiento."     3  vols.     Barcelona,  1892. 


11 

Stimulated  by  the  desire  to  make  this  work  as  authentic  and 
valuable  as  possible,  I  decided  to  visit  the  more  important  of 
those  places  in  the  West  Indies,  Mexico  and  other  parts  of 
America,  that  during  the  centuries  of  discovery  had  gained 
historical  interest.  Besides,  I  cherished  the  hope  that  perhaps 
it  might  be  given  to  me  to  solve  the  vexing  Guanahani- 
problem.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  object  I  made  extensive 
journeys  through  the  Bahama  archipelago,  exploring  all  the 
different  islands  that  possibly  might  come  into  consideration. 

I  began  my  voyage  determined  not  to  be  influenced  by  the 
views  of  any  former  investigators,  but  to  be  guided  solely  by 
such  notes  and  descriptions  as  are  contained  in  the  extracts 
Las  Casas  furnished  from  the  original  log-book  of  Columbus. 
The  difficult  task  for  me  was  to  find  in  the  wide  Bahama 
archipelago  those  places  which  in  their  aspect  as  well  as  in 
their  relation  to  other  islands  would  answer  the  descriptions 
given  by  Columbus,  and  which  in  their  succession  would  be  in 
strict  accord  with  the  notes  Columbus  had  made  in  his  log 
book  about  his  sailings. 


12 


THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  GUANAHANI,  AS  GIVEN 

BY  COLUMBUS. 

j  Of  these  notes  none  .are-  of  such  paramount  importance  as 
those  which  Columbus  gave  of  Guanahani.  They  appear 
under  date  of  October  13th,  1492,  in  the  following  words: 

"This  island  is  quite  large  and  very  level,  and  covered 
with  beautiful  green  trees.  It  has  much  water,  and  a  large 
hike  in  the  centre.  It  is  without  any  mountain,  and  the  vege 
tation  is  so  luxuriant  that  it  is  a  pleasure  to  behold  it." 

On  October  the  14th  Columbus  wrote:  "At  daybreak  I  had 
the  boat  of  the  ship  and  the  boats  of  the  caravels  made  ready 
and  went  along  the  island  in  a  north-northeasterly  direction 
in  order  to  see  the  other  side  or  the  eastern  part,  and  also  the 
villages;  and  soon  I  saw  two  or  three,  and  the  inhabitants, 
coming  to  the  shore,  calling  us.  They  beseechecl  us  to  land 
there,  but  I  was  afraid  of  a  reef  of  rocks  which  entirely  sur 
rounds  the  island.  But  within  this  belt  is  a  harbor  of  such  size, 
that  there  would  be  ample  room  for  all  the  vessels  of  Christen 
dom;  but  the  entrance  is  very  narrow.  True,  there  are  some 
rocks  within  this  harbor,  but  the  water  is  as  calm  and  motion 
less  as  that  of  a  well.  I  decided  to  investigate  all  these  things 
this  morning,  in  order  that  I  should  be  able  to  give  to  your 
Highnesses  (the  King  and  Queen  of  Spain)  a  thorough  report 
of  everything.  I  also  wanted  to  find  out  the  best  location  for  a 
fort.  And  I  discovered  a  piece  of  land,  resembling  an  island, 
although  it  is  not  one,  with  six  huts  on  it.  This  piece  of  land 
could  easily  be  cut  through  within  two  days,  thereby  converting 
it  into  an  island/' 

While  this  is  all  that  Columbus  said  with  reference  to 
Guanahani  itself,  it  is  important  to  mention  also  that  Bishop 
Las  Casas  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  "Apologetica  Historia" 
says:  "The  first  land  discovered  was  one  of  the  group  of 
islands  which  are  known  as  the  Lucayos.  The  aforesaid  island 
bears  resemblance  in  shape  to  a  bean.'" 


13 

Scant  as  these  remarks  are,  together  with  the  notes  Las 
Casas  gave  about  the  sailing  directions  of  Columbus  during 
the  progress  of  his  journey  and  of  the  distance  from  one 
island  to  the  other,  they  furnished  to  the  writer  of  this  essay 
the  first  means  for  ascertaining  the  true  location  of  Guanahani. 
After  the  most  careful  consideration  of  these  notes  and  after 
thorough  investigations  on  the  spot,  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  no  other  place  but  Watling's  Island  could  be  identical 
with  Guanahani,  and  that  the  landing  place  of  Columbus  was 
on  the  west  side  of  that  island. 

To  substantiate  these  views,  I  wish  to  state  first,  that 
Watling's  Island,  with  a  length  of  twelve  miles  from  north 
to  south  and  a  breadth  of  five  to  seven  miles  from  east  to 
west,  has  just  the  size  to  permit  the  expressions  of  Las  Casas 
and  Columbus  in  speaking  of  Guanahani  at  one  time  as  of 
"una  isleta"  (a  small  island),  and  at  another  time  as  "bien 
grande"  (moderately  large). 

Watling's  Island,  seen  from  the  ocean,  appears  also  as 
very  level  and  without  any  elevations.  The  few  thickly 
wooded  ridges,  which  divide  the  several  lagoons,  rise  to  100 
or  140  feet  only. 

Columbus  dwells  with  great  delight  on  the  beautiful  vege 
tation  of  Guanahani.  In  spite  of  the  fact,  that  during  the 
18th  and  19th  centuries  all  the  larger  trees  have  been  cut 
down  and  carried  off  by  lumbermen,  the  island  still  enjoys 
to-day  such  luxurious  vegetation  that  it  has  been  distinguished 
with  the  epithet  "the  garden  of  the  Bahamas." 

Columbus  mentions  that  the  island  has  much  water  and  a 
large  lake  in  the  center  ("y  much  as  aguas,  y  una  laguna  en 
medio  muy  grande"}.  As  our  map  shows,  Watling's  Island 
has  not  only  a  number  of  smaller  lagoons,  but  in  its  middle 
also  a  large  sheet  of  water.  The  present  inhabitants  of  the 
island  call  it  "the  great  lake." 

As  none  of  the  islands  proposed  by  the  other  writers  have 
such  a  topographical  distinguishing  mark,  its  existence  on 
Watling's  Island  is  a  feature  sufficient  in  itself  to  identify 
it  with  Guanahani. 


14 


rf  WAT  LING'S 

ISLAND 


CAT  tf>v  MAR1GUANA 

ISLAND 


%>•* 


The  above  outlines  of  the  various  islands,  suggested  as  being  identical  with 

Guanahani,  prove  that  none,  except  Watling's  Island,  has  the  shape  of  a 

bean.       Also  none,  except  Watling's  Island,  has  in  its  center  a  lake,  and 

none,  except  Watling's  Island,  has  a  great  reef  harbor. 

If  we  consider  the  existence  of  this  lake  in  the  center  of 
the  island  as  a  deciding  factor,  we  find  that  Cat  Island  has 
to  be  eliminated  from  competition  at  once.  As  this  island 
is  42  miles  long  but  only  3  to  4  miles  wide,  there  is  no  spot 
that  might  properly  be  called  its  "center."  Besides,  the  whole 
island  is,  as  I  can  state  by  personal  investigation,  nothing  but 
one  continuous  ridge,  varying  from  200  to  400  feet  in  height 
and  excluding  all  possibility  of  a  "large  lake."  Water  is  not 
abundant  but  is  so  scarce  that  the  inhabitants  must  subsist, 
as  on  many  other  Bahama  Islands,  on  rainwater. 

Samana  or  Atwood  Cay,  favored  by  Captain  Fox,  contains 
no  lake  either.  Nine  miles  long  from  east  to  west  and  ll/2 
miles  broad  from  north  to  south,  it  has  in  its  center  no  lake, 
but  a  hill  one  hundred  feet  high. 

At  Mariguana,  advocated  by  Varnhagen,  we  also  look  in 
vain  for  a  lake.  The  island  is  24  miles  long  from  east  to 
west  and  from  2  to  6  miles  wide  from  north  to  south.  In 
its  midst  rises  Centre  Hill,  110  feet  high. 

Grand  Turk,  proposed  by  Navarrete  and  Gibbs,  has  sever 
al  salt  ponds,  but  none  of  such  size  as  to  be  called  "a  large 
lake." 


15 


The  statement  of  Las  Casas,  that  Guanahani  in  its  outline 
resembles  a  bean,  is  also  well  worth  considering.  One  glance 
at  the  outlines  of  Cat  Island  as  well  as  of  Samana,  Mariguana 
and  Grand  Turk,  must  convince  everyone  that  none  of  these 
islands  permits  such  comparison,  while  the  outlines  of  Wat- 
ling's  Island  answer  in  the  most  striking  manner. 

But  now  let  us  see  if  the  other  notes  found  in  the  journal 
of  Columbus  about  his  stay  on  Guanahani  are  in  accord  with 
our  assumption  that  Guanahani  and  Watling's  Island  are 
identical. 


16 


THE  LANDING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS  AT 
GUANAHANI. 

As  the  journal  of  Columbus  omits  to  indicate  on  what  part 
of  Guanahani  he  went  ashore  on  the  morning  of  October  12th, 
1492,  any  attempt  to  solve  this  question  seems  almost  auda 
cious.  However,  the  journal  contains  a  few  remarks  written 
during  the  time  from  October  llth  to  14th  which  induce  us 
to  grapple  with  this  difficult  question.  By  studying  the  jour 
nal  we  learn  that  the  little  fleet  of  Columbus  from  October 
7th  to  llth  had  sailed  in  the  direction  west-southwest,  but 
that  after  sunset  of  the  last  named  date  the  vessels  followed 
again  the  original  course  to  the  west. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  October  the  llth  the  Admiral, 
standing  on  the  castle  of  the  poop,  believed  he  saw  "a  light, 
but  it  was  so  indistinct  that  he  did  not  dare  to  affirm  it  as  a 
sign  of  land.  Yet  he  called  the  attention  of  Pedro  Gutierrez, 
a  keeper  of  the  King's  wardroom,  to  it  and  told  him  that  it 
seemed  to  be  a  light,  asking  him  to  look,  and  he  did  so  and 
saw  it.  He  did  the  same  with  Rodrigo  Sanchez  de  Segovia, 
whom  the  King  and  Queen  had  sent  with  the  fleet  as  super 
visor  and  purveyor.  But  he,  not  being  in  a  good  position  saw 
nothing.  After  the  Admiral  said  this,  it  was  seen  once  or 
twice,  and  it  was  like  a  small  wax  candle  that  was  hoisted 
and  raised,  which  would  seem  to  few  to  be  an  indication  of 
land." 

Whether  there  was  really  such  a  light  or  not  is  of  no  great 
value,  as  the  journal  says  nothing  about  the  direction  in  which 
the  vision  was  seen.  If  there  was  a  light,  it  may  have  been  on  an 
Indian  canoe,  whose  crew  was  engaged  on  a  trading  trip. 
Such  assumption  would  best  explain  the  unsteady  character 
of  the  light. 

Two  hours  after  midnight  land  was  seen  two  leagues  off, 
whereupon  all  sails  were  lowered  with  the  exception  of  a  storm 
square-sail.  Then  the  vessels  "lay  to,  standing  off  and  on  un 
til  Friday  morning."  The  statement  that  the  vessels  "lay  to" 


17 


Probable  position  of  the  " 
Fleet  at  2  o'clock  in  the 
\    morning  of  October  12,1492 

WHITE  CAY 


LANDTONGUE 


GREEN  CAV+    THE  GREAT 


LANDING  PLAC 
COLUMBUS 


ROCWS 


Map  of  Guanahani  or  Watling's  Island,  showing  the  track  of  Columbus. 


"18 

after  the  sails  had  been  taken  in,  is  of  greatest  importance  for 
the  determination  of  the  question  as  to  what  part  of  Guana- 
ham  the  fleet  of  Columbus  anehored  in.  Columbus  states  that 
on  Thursday  October  llth  "the  vessels  encountered  a  heavier 
sea  than  they  had  met  at  any  time  before  during  the  voyage." 
Furthermore,  that  "in  the  course  of  twenty  hours  the  vessels 
made  the  remarkable  run  of  fifty-nine  leagues,  running  at 
times  ten  miles  an  hour,  at  others  twelve,  at  others  seven.  In 
the  evening  of  the  llth,  from  sunset  till  two  hours  after  mid 
night,  the  average  rate  was  twelve  miles  an  hour." 

These  statements  indicate  unmistakably  that  the  heavy  sea 
was  caused  by  a  strong  wind,  coming  from  the  east,  for  by  no 
other  means  could  the  vessels  make  such  rapid  progress.  Now 
every  sailor  on  the  Atlantic  knows  that  the  Bahamas  are  in  the 
track  of  the  east-northeastern  trade  winds,  which  blow  at  that 
time  of  the  year  regularly,  sweeping  over  the  whole  West  In 
dies.  From  the  rapid  movement  of  the  fleet  it  appears  that 
these  winds  were  exceptionally  strong  on  October  llth.  Under 
such  conditions  no  sailor  would  attempt  a  landing  on  the 
weather  side  of  an  island,  which  is  exposed  to  the  turbulence 
of  a  heavy  surf  caused  by  a  rough  sea.  Besides,  the  whole  eas 
tern  coast  of  AVatling's  Island  is  buttressed  by  a  continuous 
and  dangerous  line  of  rocks.  Regarding  this  the  "West  Indies 
Pilot,"  published  by  the  British  Admiralty,  says;  "The  eastern 
coast  of  Waiting's  Island  is  fringed  by  a  reaf,  which  sweeps 
around  the  northern  end  of  the  island  at  a  distance  of  three 
miles  from  that  shore."  As  even  in  calm  weather  a  landing  on  a 
coast  like  this  is  extremely  hazardous,  such  an  attempt  was  cer 
tainly  not  made  under  the  conditions  prevailing  during  the 
night  and  morning  of  October  the  12th,  1492.  This  fact  is 
clearly  indicated  by  the  statement  that  the  vessels,  after  the 
sails  had  been  taken  in  "lay  to  until  the  morning."  As  the  land 
had  been  seen  two  hours  after  midnight,  we  may  assume  that 
the  vessels  were  "laying  to"  for  about  four  hours. 

Now,  small  vessels  such  as  the  caravels  of  Columbus  do 
not,  while  laying  to,  remain  at  the  same  spot,  especially  when 
the  wind  and  the  movement  of  the  sea  are  strong,  as  was  the 


19 

case.  Under  such  conditions  vessels  during  four  hours  are 
carried  away  by  the  wind  and  the  current  for  several  miles, 
probably  as  many  as  ten  or  fifteen,  or  some  miles  beyond  Wat- 
liiig's  Island,  which  is  only  six  to  seven  miles  broad.  In  the 
morning,  whether  the  vessel  passed  the  island  on  the  north  or 
on  the  south,  the  only  natural  course  was  to  turn  about  and  ap 
proach  the  island  from  the  west  and  seek  an  anchorage  on  the 
lee  or  protected  side. 

While  searching  here  for  a  safe  landing  place  the  atten 
tion  of  the  sailors  must  have  been  attracted  by  the  same  small 
but  convenient  beach  in  which  all  vessels  cast  anchor,  that  call 
at  Watling's  Island  today.  The  "West  Indies  Pilot"  says: 
''There  is  anchorage  with  the  usual  winds  in  depths  of  about  8 
fathoms,  of  Cockburn  Town,  the  principal  settlement  south 
ward  of  Riding  Rock  Point,  and  northward  of  Gardiner  Reef; 
the  soundings  are  from  5  to  8  fathoms  on  the  edge  of  the  bank, 
which  is  very  steep,  and  a  vessel  should  anchor  immediately 
they  are  obtained." 

Cockburn  Town  occupies  without  doubt  the  site  of  a  for 
mer  Indian  village,  whose  inhabitants  must  have  appreciated 
this  beach  as  the  most  convenient  landing  place  for  their  canoes 
just  as  the  people  of  Cockburn  Town  do  today. 

If  we  assume,  that  this  beach  was  also  the  landing  place  of 
Columbus  on  October  ]2th,  1492,  the  many  obstacles  which 
present  themselves  in  every  other  theory  and  that  have  em 
barrassed  all  the  other  investigators,  completely  disappear. 
In  constant  accord  with  the  log-book,  we  enjoy  smooth  sailing 
from  Guanahani  to  Cuba. 


58 

I-J 


a 

-Q 
S 
J3 

13  • 

0 


fri     «8 


fcC 

.S 


V* 

pq 


21 


THE  BOAT  TRIP  OF  COLUMBUS  ON  OCTOBER 

THE  14TH  AND  THE  DISCOVERY  OF 

THE  GREAT  REEF  HARBOR. 

"At  dawn",  so  Columbus  states  in  his  journal  under  the 
date  of  October  14th,  "J  ordered  the  boat  of  the  ship  and  the 
boats  of  the  caravels  to  be  made  ready  and  I  went  along  the 
island  in  a  north-northeasterly  direction,  to  explore  the  other 
part  of  the  island,  namely  that  which  lies  to  the  east."  During 
this  journey  a  number  of  natives  appeared  at  the  coast,  be 
seeching  Columbus  to  come  ashore.  "But"  so  the  Admiral 
continues,  "I  was  afraid  to  do  this  on  account  of  a  great  reef 
of  rocks,  which  entirely  surrounded  the  island,  although  there 
is,  within,  a  harbor  ample  deep  and  wide  enough  to  shelter  all 
the  vessels  of  Christendom;  but  the  entrance  is  very  narrow. 
True,  there  are  some  rocks  within  this  harbor,  but  the  water 
is  there  as  smooth  as  a  pond.  I  went  to  see  all  this  this  morn 
ing  in  order  that  I  might  be  able  to  give  an  account  of  every 
thing  to  your  Highnesses;  and  also  to  find  out  where  a  fort 
could  be  built.  I  discovered  a  piece  of  land  which  looks  like  an 
island,  although  it  is  not  one.  Six  dwellings  were  located 
thereon.  In  two  days  it  could  easily  be  cut  off  and  converted 
into  an  island." 

These  are  the  sentences,  which  for  the  further  identifica 
tion  of  Guanahani  and  the  landing  place  are  of  greatest  impor 
tance.  Therefore,  we  must  consider  them  line  by  line. 

When  in  the  first  sentence  Columbus  states,  that  he  set 
out  "to  explore  the  other  part  of  the  island,  namely  that  which 
lies  to  the  east,"  we  have  again  a  clear  confirmation,  that  his 
vessels  were  not  at  the  east  side  of  the  island,  but  most  pro 
bably  at  the  opposite  or  west  coast.  Besides,  if  we  would  accept 
a  landing  at  the  east  coast  of  Watling's  Island,  then  a  boat 
trip  undertaken  in  a  north-northeasterly  direction  would  have 
taken  the  Admiral  into  the  open  ocean. 

The  English  geographer  R.H.  Major  was  inclined  to  seek 
the  landing  place  of  Columbus  at  the  southeastern  point  of 


22 

Waiting's,  believing  that  one  of  the  two  tongues  of  land  to  be 
found  there  might  answer  for  the  one  described  by  the  Admiral, 
and  that  the  sheet  of  water  enclosed  by  these  land  tongues, 
might  be  the  marvellous  reef  harbor,  able  to  hold  all  the  vessels 
of  Christendom.  Close  investigations  prove,  however,  that 
these  theories  can  not  stand.  First,  the  inlet  between  the  ton 
gues,  known  as  Pigeon  Creek,  is  no  reef  harbor.  Secondly, 
the  entrance  to  this  sheet  of  water  is  not,  as  that  described  by 
Columbus,  "very  narrow7"  but  very  wide.  Thirdly,  both  land- 
tongues  are  much  too  broad  to  permit  cutting  them  through 
within  two  days.  Fourthly*  the  theory  that  the  Admiral  might 
have  landed  on  the  southern  coast  of  Watling's  seems  impro 
bable,  as  indicated  by  the  following  note  written  by  Columbus 
on  October,  13th  :  "Through  signs,  made  by  the  aborigines, 
I  was  able  to  understand  that  by  going  to  the  south  or  going 
around  the  island  to  southward,  there  was  a  king  who  has  large 
gold  vessels  and  gold  in  abundance."  "If  Columbus  had  been 
at  the  south  coast,  then  he  would  have  had  no  reason  to  say 
"by  going  around  the  island  to  the  southward." 

Supposing,  however,  that  Columbus  had  gone  ashore  on 
the  beach  at  Riding  Rock  Point,  it  is  easy  to  identify  every 
spot  described  by  the  great  discoverer.  A  boat  trip,  under 
taken  from  Riding  Rock  Point  in  north-northeasterly  direc 
tion  leads  along  a  great  reef  of  rocks,  the  same  which  made 
Columbus  afraid  to  land.  Everywhere  hammered  by  the  surf 
caused  by  the  swelling  of  the  sea,  its  aspect  is  forbidding 
enough  to  discourage  any  attempt  to  pass  over  these  rocks  in 
a  row-boat  in  order  to  reach  the  shore. 

By  passing  along  this  reef  in  a  north-northeastern  direc 
tion  we  reach  the  northwestern  or  Barkers  Point  of  Watling's 
Island  and  soon  arrive  at  a  small  islet,  called  Green  Cay.  At 
if*  south  end  is  a  narrow  channel  7  feet  deep  leading  into  an 
enormous  reef  harbor,  which  answers  in  every  respect  the  de 
scription  given  by  Columbus. 

The  "West  Indies  Pilot"  furnishes  the  following  comment 
on  this  harbor:  "There  is  no  safe  anchorage  on  Watling's  Is 
land  except  at  the  northend,  where  there  is  a  reef  harbor  for 


23 

coasters."  About  its  entrance  the  same  handbook  says: 
"Around  the  sonthend  of  Green  Cay  is  the  channel  with  7  feet 
water,  leading  into  the  anchorage  for  coasters." 

While  these  remarks  are  meagre,  the  drawings  on  the  En 
glish  and  American  sea  charts  are  even  still  more  deficient. 
Not  one  of  these  maps  contains  details  about  this  reef  harbor,  a 
fact  which  proves  that  the  knowledge  of  these  regions,  which 
are  outside  of  the  main  lanes  of  travel  for  steamers,  remain  to 
this  day  vague  and  imperfect.  In  fact  this  harbor  is  the  most 
unique  and  most  remarkable  in  the  whole  Bahama  group,  and 
when  Columbus  stated  that  it  "was  amply  wide  enough  to  shel 
ter  all  the  vessels  of  Christendom"  he  had  not  made  himself 
guilty  of  exaggeration. 

The  "West  Indies  Pilot"  and  the  "U.  S.  Nautical  Hand 
book  about  the  Caribbean  Seas"  contain  nothing  about  the  size 
of  the  harbor.  According  to  our  own  estimate  its  extent  from 
the  entrance  at  Green  Cay  to  its  eastern  limits  may  be  three 
and  a  half  to  four  miles.  The  extent  from  south  to  north  may 
be  about  the  same.  That  within  such  a  large  space  the  fleets  of 
mediaeval  Europe  might  be  easily  assembled  is  obvious. 

It  was  on  the  21st  of  November  1890  that  I  investigated 
the  western  coast  of  Watling's  Island,  in  order  to  identify  the 
place  described  by  Columbus.  After  a  tedious  walk  along 
the  sandy  shores  from  Cockburn  Town  to  the  northwest  point 
I  reached  the  spot  where,  if  my  theory  should  prove  correct, 
the  great  reef  harbor  must  come  in  sight.  Here,  after  climb 
ing  a  rocky  ridge,  my  efforts  were  repaid  by  one  of  the  most 
astounding  sights  I  have  ever  had  in  my  life.  There  the  im 
mense  harbor  stretched  before  my  eyes,  reaching  to  the  far 
horizon,  its  limits  everywhere  distinguishable  by  the  white 
surf,  thrown  by  the  waves  of  the  ocean  against  the  line  of  reefs. 
And  lo!  while  outside  the  reefs  the  ocean  was  in  motion,  the 
waters  within  the  harbor  were  just  as  described  by  Columbus, 
"as  calm  and  smooth  as  a  pond." 

In  his  description  of  the  harbor.  Columbus  does  not  forget 
to  mention  some  rocks  within  this  harbor.  Their  dark  heads 
rise  here  and  there  above  the  bright  greenish-blue  sheet  of 
water. 


But  where  was  the  "-piece  of  land,  resembling  an  island, 
although  it  is  not  one?"  O  wonder!  I  beheld  it  in  the  distance 
running  out  from  the  northeastern  point  of  Watling's  Island, 
and  answering  exactly  to  the  description  as  given  by  the  Admi 
ral:  "Resembling  an  island  although  it  is  not  one."  By  close  in 
vestigation  I  found  that  this  tongue  of  land  is  about  half  a  mile 
long  and  on  an  average  200  to  300  steps  wide.  Just  where  it 
runs  out  from  the  main  land  are  two  places,  only  30  to  40  steps 
wide  ,  which  according  to  the  statement  of  Columbus,  might  be 
cut  through  within  two  days,  easily.  For  a  fortification,  such 
as  the  Spaniards  used  to  construct  in  the  West  Indies  during' 
the  16th  and  17th  centuries,  this  piece  of  land  is  admirably 
adapted.  While  there  is  ample  room  for  a  citadel  like  those  of 
Puerto  Plata  and  Santo  Domingo,  the  sides  of  the  tongue  are 
very  steep,  rising  abruptly  from  the  ocean  as  well  as  from  the 
reef  harbor.  That  the  excellent  strategic  value  of  this  piece 
of  land  was  perceived  by  later  visitors  also,  is  indicated  by  the 
presence  of  a  heavy  iron  cannon,  which  still  resting  on  its  origi 
nal  carriage,  stands  hidden  in  the  thick  brush  that  covers  this 
remarkable  peninsula.  Pointed  exactly  to  the  narrow  entrance 
of  the  reef  harbor  at  the  south  end  of  Green  Cay,  this  gun  Is 
without  doubt  a  relic  of  those  times  when  the  Spanish  and  the 
English  buccaneers  battled  for  the  possession  of  the  Bahama 
Islands.  Most  probably  the  harbor  served  as  a  hiding  place  for 
Watling,  Blackbeard,  and  other  notorious  pirates,  who  infested 
the  Bahamas  during  the  17th  and  18th  centuries. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  in  those  bygone  days  an  attempt 
was  made  to  convert  the  most  extreme  part  of  this  land-tongue 
into  a  fortified  retreat-  There  exists  a  cut,  about  180  to  200  feet 
wide  and  45  feet  deep,  navigable  for  row-boats  at  high  tide. 
Whether  it  was  made  by  men  or  by  the  ocean  is  difficult  to 
decide.— 

As  a  confirmation  of  my  statements?  I  add  here  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  reef  harbor  and  the  land-tongue,  as  given  by  Walter 
Wellman,  a  well-known  writer,  who  visited  Watling's  Island 
in  June  1891,  seven  months  subsequent  to  my  visit.  In  the 
"Chicago  Herald"  of  July  4th,  1891,  he  writes  as  follows:  "It 


c 
cr= 


O      >-( 

-I- 


o   " 

5  s 


0 

5 
n 

i 


I 

i 


26 

is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  pieee  of  land  like  an  island,  which 
Columbus  mentions,  which  could  be  easily  cut  off  and  con 
verted  into  an  island,  and  which  is  conclusive  evidence,  does 
not  appear  in  any  map  or  chart  of  Watling's  which  we  have 
seen.  Little  was  known  of  the  harbor,  but  apparently  noth 
ing  whatever  was  known  of  the  piece  of  land  like  an  island. 
We  have  searched  charts  and  maps  in  vain  for  it  and  finally 
settled  down  to  the  fear  that  the  absence  of  such  a  headland 
might  be  found  a  weak  point  in  the  Waitings'  theory.  No  one 
whom  we  met  knew  anything  of  such  a  headland  and  we  feared 
no  such  headland  existed.  Imagine  our  surprise  that  bright 
morning  on  which  we  started  into  Graham's  Harbor,  to  see  a 
long  neck  of  land  projecting  a  quarter  of  a  mile  into  the  sea 
from  the  northeast  point  of  the  island  and  through  it,  about 
midway  from  land  to  its  outermost  point,  a  cut  through  which 
the  green  water  of  the  sea  was  pouring.  With  one  accord  all 
on  board  exclaimed:  There  is  the  piece  of  land  like  an  island, 
and  yet  not  an  island,  but  which  could  easily  be  made  an  island, 
as  Columbus  described  1  And  so  it  was.  For  centuries  the  sea, 
running  in  strongly  at  times  through  the  reefs,  has  been  wear 
ing  away  at  that  cut.  When  Columbus  saw  it  no  doubt  it  was 
still  connected  above  the  sea  level  with  the  mainland.  Now 
four  hundred  years  later  it  is  an  open  cut,  across  which  one 
may  pick  his  way  with  dry  feet  at  low  tide.  The  headland  is 
quite  wide  in  places  and  must  contain  at  least  fifteen  or  twenty 
acres  of  ground.  This  tongue  of  land  is  proof  almost  as  strong 
as  holy  writ  of  the  identity  of  Watling's  Island  with  the  San 
Salvador  of  the  great  discoverer.  It  is  conceivable  that  at 
many  places  in  the  Bahama  Islands  there  may  be  similar  necks 
of  land,  more  or  less  cut  off  from  the  mainland  by  the  action  of 
the  sea;  it  is  also  conceivable  that  there  may  be  other  harbors 
in  the  Bahamas  similar  to  the  one  which  Columbus  here  saw 
and  described.  But  it  is  far  beyond  the  range  of  the  probable, 
that  at  any  other  point  there  exists,  one  besides  the  other,  such 
a  harbor  and  such  a  headland,  meeting  in  every  particular  both 
as  to  themselves  and  as  to  their  relative  positions  in  an  island 
which  also  fully  meets  every  requirement  of  Columbus'  de 
scription  of  his  San  Salvador. " — 


27 


Tongue  of  Land  at  the  northeastern  end  of  Watling's  Island. 
Seen  from  Southeast  toward  Northwest. 

Of  great  interest  is  also  the  following  letter  by  Lieuten 
ant  J.  B.  Murdock,  U.  S.  Navy,  the  author  of  the  memoir 
"The  Cruise  of  Columbus  in  the  Bahamas"  (No.  30  of  the  Pro 
ceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Naval  Institute) .  Of  all  the  investiga 
tors  of  the  Guanahani-Question  it  was  he  who  came  nearest  to 
the  solution,  as  his  theory  \vas  that  Columbus  might  have  land 
ed  on  the  west  side  of  Watling's  Island  a  little  north  of  the 
southwest  point.  But  relying  on  unaccurate  maps  only  and 
not  having  visited  the  island  personally,  Murdock  was  unable 
to  give  any  account  about  the  reef  harbor  and  "the  piece  of 
land  like  an  island  and  yet  not  an  island." 

When  in  1894  I  became  for  the  first  time  acquainted  with 
Murdock's  memoir,  I  addressed  a  letter  to  this  officer,  inform 
ing  him  of  the  results  of  my  investigations  on  the  island.  In 
response  came  the  following  letter : 

U.  S.  Ship  Minneapolis, 
Navy  Yard,  League  Id.  Pa. 
Mr.  Rudolph  Cronau,  Dec.  22  1894. 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Dear  Sir! 

I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  17th  inst.  and  was  much 
interested  therein.  I  think  that  the  views  I  advanced  in  my 
article  written  for  the  U.  S.  Naval  Institute  in  1884  in  relation 


28 

to  the  cruise  of  Columbus  in  the  Bahamas  in  1492  has  been 
quite  favorably  received  by  persons  well  qualified  to  judge,  but 
I  am  especially  gratified  by  the  fact  that  after  independent  and 
careful  investigations  on  the  spot  you  were  led  to  the  conclu 
sion  in  accordance  with  mine  before  you  knew  the  latter.  The 
close  agreement  between  us  tends  under  these  circumstances  to 
confirm  my  results. 

I  am  greatly  obliged  for  your  writing  me  and  for  the  in 
formation  you  give  as  to  the  harbor  at  the  north  end  of  Wat- 
ling's  Island.  I  suspected  the  existence  of  something  of  that 
kind  from  the  charts  I  examined  but  they  were  rather  indefin- 
itive  and  I  could  reach  no  positive  conclusion.  The  result  of 
your  own  personal  investigations  is  therefore  of  great  interest 
to  me. 

Thanking  you  again  for  your  letter,  I  remain,  dear  Sir, 

Very  truly  yours, 

S.  B.  Murdock, 
Lieut.  U.  S.  Navy. 


A  relic   of  bygone   days. 
Old   cannon,   found  on  the  tongue  of  land   on   Watling's   Island. 


THE  ENIGMA  OF  THE  "MANY  ISLANDS." 

"After  I  had  investigated  all  the  harbor,"  so  continues 
Columbus  in  his  journal  under  the  date  of  October  14th,  "Z 
returned  to  the  ships  and  set  sail.  Soon  I  saw  so  many  isl 
ands  that  I  was  perplexed  to  which  one  I  should  go  first.  The 
natives  I  had  taken  (from  Guanahani)  indicated  by  signs  that 
there  were  so  many  islands  that  they  could  not  be  counted,  and 
they  named  more  than  one  hundred  of  them.  I  concluded  there 
fore  to  look  for  the  largest  one  and  to  this  I  intend  to  go." 

It  was  this  passage  which  proved  to  be  to  all  scholars  in 
terested  in  the  Guanahani-Question  an  ^insurmountable  obsta 
cle-  As  there  is  no  place  within  the  entire  Bahama  archipel 
ago  where  "many  islands"  can  be  seen  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  no  one  was  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  explanation. 
Becher,  Fox,  Varnhagen  and  Murdock  racked  their  brains  in 
vain  for  a  solution  of  this  enigma.  Murdock  tried  to  escape 
the  embarrassing  question  with  the  following  words:  "It  is 
hard  to  imagine  that  Columbus  was  deceived  or  that  he  con 
strued  clouds  or  indications  of  land  into  islands;  but  his  lan 
guage  indicates  the  existence  of  an  archipelago  such  as  we  can 
not  find  anywhere  on  our  maps  of  today  near  the  border  of  the 
Bahamas,  except  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Caycos,  and  this  cluster 
of  islands  is  so  situated  that  no  track  can  be  followed  from 
them  that  agrees  with  any  of  the  subsequent  records.  It  seems 
better  to  admit  that  this  passage  cannot  be  understood,  rather 
than  to  attempt  any  forced  reconcilement.  Columbus  may  have 
been  deceived,  or  some  error  may  have  crept  into  the  log  later. 
As  it  stands  it  is  irreconcilable  with  modern  charts"* 

And  yet  this  puzzling  question  is  easily  solved,  when  we 
consider  the  physical  conditions  of  the  many  islands  constitut 
ing  the  Bahama  archipelago.  Like  the  coral  islands  of  the 
Pacific  and  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  Bahama  islands  are  very 
low  and  without  mountains.  They  have  no  other  elevations 
but  a  number  of  hills  and  ridges,  which  rise  generally  not  above 


h)    Murdock,  "The  Cruise  of  Columbus  in   the   Bahamas."    p.  485. 


30 

100  to  200  feet.  Now,  when  a  vessel  eruising  in  these  regions 
comes  in  sight  of  such  islands  the  tops  of  these  hills  and  ridges 
emerge  first  above  the  horizon  and  appear  as  so  manu  separate 
islands.  Not  until  the  vessel  approaches  considerably  closer , 
do  the  connecting  lowlands  come  into  view. 

When  on  November  19th,  1890,  I  cruised  on  board  the 
schooner  "Richmond"  between  the  islands  Conception  and 
Rum  Cay,  the  former  appeared  sometimes  like  three,  at  other 
times  like  four,  five  and  even  like  six  separate  islands,  no  con 
nections  being  visible  between  them.  The  same  illusion  forced 
itself  upon  me  in  regard  to  Rum  Cay.  Alternately,  according 
to  the  distance  between  the  island  and  the  schooner,  which, 
tacking  against  the  trade  wind,  was  bound  for  Watling's,  the 
hills  of  Rum  Cay  appeared  like  five  or  six  separate  islands. 
These  with  every  dip  of  the  vessel  disappeared  below  the  hor 
izon,  but  came  into  view  again  as  soon  as  the  schooner  was 
lifted  by  a  wave. 


Profileof  RumCay,  f romNHME 


Profile  of  Rum  Cay,  from  NE  to  SW.    Dist.  Smiles 


Profile  of  Conception, from  N  tx>  S- Dist.  9milcs 

As  Columbus  recites  in  his  journal,  the  natives  of  Guana- 
hani  had  given  him  to  understand  that  if  he  would  find  a  coun 
try  rich  with  gold  he  must  sail  toward  the  south  and  southwest. 
Assuming  that  he  followed  this  advice,  and  assuming  that  by 
the  strong  current  of  the  Aequatorial  stream,  coming  from  the 
southeast  and  running  to  the  northwrest,  his  vessels  were  car 
ried  somewhat  in  the  latter  direction,  they  may  have  been  at  a 
point  where  the  hills  of  both  Conception  and  Rum  Cay  were 
in  view  at  the  same  time,  appearing  like  so  many  separate  isl 
ands,  just  as  they  appeared  to  the  writer  on  November  20th, 
1890.  That  Conception  was  then  in  view,  seems  most  probable 
not  only  from  the  recorded  determination  of  Columbus  to  steer 


31 

toward  the  largest  of  the  islands,  but  also  from  the  famous 
map  by  Juan  de  la  Cosa.  On  this  map,  which  La  Cosa  made 
in  1500,  he  indicated  west  of  Guanahani  and  northwest  of  the 
second  island  visited  by  Columbus,  an  islet  which  can  be  identi- 
field  only  with  the  present  Conception.*)  (See  map  of  La  Co 
sa.) 

The  belief  of  Columbus  that  there  were  "many"  islands,  is 
not  surprising  as  he  met  here  a  type  of  islands  the  physical 
character  and  appearance  of  which  was  entirely  new  to  him. 
He  knew  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  the  Azores, 
the  Canary  and  Cape  Verde  Islands,  all  of  which  are  moun 
tainous  and  visible  at  great  distances.  Coral  islands,  however, 
he  had  never  seen  before.  So  it  wras  easy  to  fall  into  error  as 
to  their  number,  especially  when  we  consider  that  the  natives 
of  Guanahani  had  made  him  understand  that  the  islands  of 
their  archipelago  were  far  too  numerous  to  be  counted. 


On  many  reproductions  of  this  famous  map  this  islet  is  omitted. 


32 


SANTA  MARIA  DE  LA  COXCEPCIOX,  THE  RUM 
CAY  OF  TODAY. 

While  Columbus  was  still  in  the  belief  that  "many  isl 
ands"  were  in  view  he  decided  to  start  for  the  largest  one. 
Having  sailed  from  Guanahani  in  a  southwestern  direction, 
the  island  known  today  as  Rum  Cay  was  nearest  and  must 
have  appeared  as  the  largest,  as  in  fact  it  surpasses  that  little 
island  which  today  is  called  Conception,  though  it  does  not 
bear  this  name  rightfully. 

"It  seems  probable,"  so  Columbus  writes  in  his  journal 
under  the  date  of  October  the  14th,  "that  this  island  is  distant 
five  leagues  from  San  Salvador."  But  in  his  notes  of  the  fol 
lowing  day  he  says:  "I  had  been  standing  off  and  on  during 
this  night,  as  I  feared  to  approach  the  island  before  morning', 
not  knowing  whether  the  coast  was  free  from  rocks  or  shallow 
places.  I  hoped  to  clew  up  at  dawn,  but  as  the  island  was  over 
five  leagues  distant,  rather  seven,  and  as  the  tide  detained 
me,*)  it  was  about  noon  when  I  reached  the  island." 

Now,  it  is  necessary  to  state  here  that  the  exact  length  of 
the  old  Spanish  league  is  not  known  to  us  but  it  is  a  matter  of 
connection.  Some  scholars,  as  for  instance  the  Austrian  Hy- 
drographer  Gelcich,  after  careful  investigations  came  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  league  was  equal  to  2.3  nautical  miles. 
Scott  believed  that  it  was  equal  to  2.34,  while  Lieutenant  Fox 
of  the  U.  S.  Navy  computed  it  to  be  3  nautical  miles.  Taking 
2.75  miles  as  an  average  of  these  various  estimates,  our  belief, 
that  the  second  island  visited  by  Columbus,  was  Rum  Cay,  is 
well  sustained  as  the  distance  from  the  Southwest  point  of 
Watling's  Island  to  the  nearest  part  of  Rum  Cay  is  19  nautical 
miles  or  7  leagues. 

Columbus  gave  to  this  island  the  name  of  Santa  Maria  de 
la  Conception. 


*)  This  detainment  was  undoubtedly  due  to  the  Equatorial  Current  which 
comes  from  Africa,  and  presses  along  the  coast  of  Cuba  and  between  the  Bahama 
islands.  Its  velocity  is  estimated  to  be  between  18  to  30  miles  per  day. 


33 


GUANIMA 
(CAT  ISLAND) 


PGUANAHANI 

if    5AN  SALVADOR 
(WATLINGS  ISLAND) 


(CONCEPTION);; 


CABO  SANTA  MARIA 


ST. MARIA  CONCEPTION 
(RUM  CAY) 


YUMA 

FERNANDINA 
(LONG  ISLAND) 


CABO  DEL  ISLEO <•• . .    SAOMETO 


\ \  ISLAS  DE  ARENA 


COLUMBUS  BANK 


The  Track  of  Columbus  in  the  Bahama  Archipelago. 


34 

In  his  journal  he  says  about  it:  "I  found  that  the  side  to 
ward  the  island  of  San  Salvador  (Guanahani)  runs  from  north 
to  south  and  is  five  leagues  in  length.  And  the  other  side,  which 
I  followed,  runs  from  east  to  west  and  measures  more  than 
ten  leagues." 

While  the  directions  of  the  coast-lines  of  Rum  Cay  cor 
respond  exactly  with  those  noted  by  Columbus,  his  estimate  of 
the  length  of  these  coasts  is  excessive.  It  must  be  stated  here, 
that  the  sailors  of  the  15th  century  measured  all  distances  with 
out  the  aid  of  optical  instruments,  by  the  eye  only.  For  meas 
uring  time,  they  had  no  other  means  than  the  hour-glass.  Thus 
handicapped,  errors  were  inevitable.  Murdock,  a  mariner  him 
self,  in  his  monograph  about  the  cruise  of  Columbus  states  that 
"experienced  seamen  differ  widely  in  their  estimates  of  the 
distance  of  land  when  they  have  nothing  but  their  judgement 
to  rely  upon"  (p.  480).  Furthermore,  it  must  be  pointed  out 
that  Columbus's  estimate  in  regard  to  the  length  of  the  east 
coast  was  a  guess  only,  as  he  did  not  follow  this  coast  but  the 
other  one  running  from  east  to  west.  That  he  should  have 
overestimated  the  length  of  the  latter  seems  to  be  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  vessels  met  with  calm  weather,  as  appears  from 
the  words  "I  clewed  up  the  sails,  for  I  had  proceeded  through 
out  the  whole  day  until  night  without  having  been  able  to  reach 
the  western  point  of  the  island.  About  sunset  I  anchored  near 
said  western  point." 


35 


FERNANDINA— THE  LONG  ISLAND  OF  TODAY. 

As  the  little  fleet  slowly  proceeded  along  the  northern 
coast  of  Santa  Maria  de  la  Concepcion  another  island  of  large 
size  came  into  view  in  the  west.  Setting  his  course  toward  it 
on  the  morning  of  October  the  15th,  Columbus  states  as  fol 
lows:  "I  left  at  about  ten  o'clock,  with  a  southeast  wind,  in 
clining  to  the  south  for  the  other  island,  a  very  large  one  .  .  . 
The  distance  from  the  island  of  Santa  Maria  to  this  other  one 
is  nine  leagues  in  the  direction  from  east  to  west.  The  entire 
coast  line  of  the  large  island  runs  from  northwest  toward  south 
east,  and  its  length  appears  to  be  more  than  twenty-eight 
leagues.  The  island  is  like  San  Salvador  and  Santa  Maria 
level  and  without  mountains.  The  shores  are  free  from  reefs, 
except  some  sunken  rocks  which  demand  great  care  of  the  navi 
gator  when  seeking  an  anchorage." 

As  on  their  way  from  Santa  Maria  to  this  new  island  the 
vessels  again  met  with  calm  weather  ("y  navegue  toda  equel 
dia  con  calmeria" ) ,  Columbus  again  overestimates  the  distance 
between  the  two  islands,  which  is  from  the  most  western  point 
of  Santa  Maria  or  Rum  Cay  to  Long  Island  19  nautical  miles, 
while  Columbus  believed  it  to  be  9  leagues  or  about  24  miles. 
That  he  himself  deemed  his  estimate  in  need  of  revision,  is 
shown  by  a  later  notation  under  date  of  October  16th,  where 
he  says  "this  island  lies  at  a  distance  from  that  of  Santa  Maria 
of  eight  leagues  from  east  to  west." 

In  honor  of  King  Ferdinand  of  Spain  Columbus  baptize 
this  island  Fernandina.   Among  the  natives  i^Twas  known  as 
Yuma. 


^ 


While  describing  this  island  Columbus  gives  some  charac 
teristic^  which  apply  only  to  the  present  Long  Island  and  in 
no  manner  to  any  other  part  of  the  Bahamas.  Not  only  is 
Long  Island  plainly  visible  from  Santa  Maria  or  Rum  Cay, 
but  the  long  chain  of  its  low  ridges  gird  almost  the  whole  west 
ern  horizon  and  leave  no  doubt  as  to  its  extensive  size.  Note 
what  the  Admiral  states  about  this  size.  While  seeing  it  from 


M 

Santa  Maria  IK*  writes:  "It  seems  to  me  that  the  side  facing  us 
is  more  than  twenty-eight  leagues  in  length."  On  the  follow 
ing  day  he  says:  The  whole  coast  runs  from  north-northwest 
toward  the  south-southeast,  I  saw  about  twenty  leagues  of  it, 
without  having  been  able  to  see  the  end." 

According  to  the  "West  Indies  Pilot"  Long  Island  has  a 
length  of  57  miles.  Its  position  answers  exactly  that  given  by 
Columbus,  viz.  north-northwest  to  south-southeast.  The  island 
is  also  very  level  and  on  its  eastern  coast  free  of  reefs  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  rocks,  which  tallies  with  the  statements  of 
the  discoverer. 

Under  date  of  October  17th  the  journal  of  Columbus  con 
tains  the  following  passage:  "At  noon  (here  is  meant  noon 
of  October  16th)  I  left  the  place  where  I  had  anchored  and 
taken  in  water,  in  order  to  sail  around  this  island  of  Fernand- 
ina.  The  wind  came  from  the  southwest  and  west.  I  intended  to 
follow  the  coast  toward  the  southeast,  as  this  island  runs  from 
north-northwest  to  south-southeast,  I  desired  to  take  this 
route  because  the  Indians  I  have  on  board  indicated  by  signs 
that  in  that  direction  I  would  find  an  island  which  they  call 
Samoet,  where  there  is  gold.  Martin  Alonso  Pinzon,  however, 
the  Captain  of  the  caravel  Piiita,  to  whom  1  had  sent  three  of 
these  Indians,  came  to  me  and  said,  that  one  of  them  had  very 
positively  given  him  to  understand  that  I  would  round  the 
island  much  the  quickest  by  a  north-northwest  course.  As  the 
wind  was  not  favorable  for  my  intended  course,  but  was  to  the 
other,  I  sailed  to  the  north-northwest.  When  I  teas  near  the 
end  of  the  island,  about  two  leagues  off,  I  discovered  a  very 
remarkable  port  with  an  entrance,  or  rather  it  may  be  said  that 
there  are  two  entrances,  because  there  t*  a  rocky  islet  in  the 
middle.  Both  entrances  are  very  narrow,  but  within  there  would 
be  ample  room  for  one  hundred  ships,  if  the  harbor  would  have 
sufficient  depth  of  water  and  was  clear,  and  had  also  an  en 
trance  deep  enough.  I  thought  it  worth  while  to  investigate 
and  to  take  soundings:  and  so  anchored  outside  and  went  in 
rci/A  all  the  boats  of  the  ships.  I  saw,  however,  that  there  was 
not  enough  depth  of  water." 


37 


Cape  Santa  Maria,  the  north  point 

of  Fernandina  or  Long  Island. 
After  a  drawing   from   nature  by   R.    Cronau. 

Xow.  where  is  this  remarkable  inlet?  This  question  again 
offered  manv  difficulties.  Becher  dismissed  it  with  scarcely  a 

m 

notice ;  Irving  sought  it  on  Great  Exuma  Island ;  Fox  believed 
it  identical  with  Clarence  Harbor  on  Long  Island.  But  this  har 
bor  is  not  "near  the  end  of  the  island,  about  two  leagues  off," 
but  about  43  miles  southeast  of  the  northern  point.  Besides  it 
does  not  at  all  answer  the  description  by  Columbus. 

But  there  is  just  about  2  or  3  miles  southeast  from  the 
most  northern  point  of  Long  Island  an  inlet  not  indicated  on 
modern  sea  maps.  I  passed  it  on  the  morning  of  November 
19th,  1890,  on  board  the  schooner  "Richmond."  But  unfortu 
nately  there  was  a  very  strong  wind  from  the  east,  causing  a 
heavy  surf  that  would  have  made  any  attempt  of  landing  very 
dangerous.  As  also  the  captain  did  not  wish  to  lose  time,  an 
investigation  of  this  inlet  was  impossible.  But  with  the  help 
of  a  telescope  I  made  out  an  entrance  divided  into  two  chan 
nels  by  a  huge  rock  leaning  over  somewhat  toward  the  north- 
Several  members  of  the  Xegro  crew  of  the  "Richmond,"  all 
native  Bahamites  and  well  acquainted  with  the  coast  of  Long 
Island,  asserted  that  at  that  point  a  small  inlet  exists. 

Further  confirmation  of  this  fact  was  given  to  the  writer 
by  Reverend  Chrysostom  Schreiner,  formerly  connected  with 
the  St.  Anselm's  priory  in  the  Bronx,  Xew  York  City.  Since 
1891  engaged  in  missionary  work  among  the  600  Xegroes  that 
now  are  the  inhabitants  of  Watling's  Island,  this  priest,  after 
reading  my  book  "Amerika,"  became  deeply  interested  in  the 


38 

voyages  of  Columbus.  He  not  only  explored  Waiting's  Island, 
but  visited  also  several  other  islands  of  the  Bahama  archipel 
ago.  In  a  letter,  dated  July  13,  1921,  Reverend  Schreiner 
says:  "I  am  quite  familiar  with  your  book  "Amerika"  and 
recognize  you  as  the  first  to  have  pointed  out  Riding  Rock  as 
the  landfall."  He  also  informed  the  writer,  that  he  explored 
the  inlet  near  the  northern  point  of  Long  Island,  but  found 
that  it  has  only  six  feet  of  water. 

Having  investigated  this  inlet,  Columbus  continued  to  sail 
to  the  northwest  until  he  had  "all  that  part  of  the  island  as  far 
as  the  point  where  the  coast  turns  from  the  east  to  a  western 
direction."  Undoubtedly  Columbus  had  reached  that  point  of 
Long  Island  known  today  as  Cape  Santa  Maria,  where  the 
coast  turns  sharp  toward  the  west.  But  here  the  aborigines, 
Columbus  had  on  board  of  his  flagship,  advised  him  that  to 
reach  the  island  Samoet  it  would  be  well  to  go  back,  as  thus  he 
would  reach  Samoet  sooner.  The  journal,  continuing,  says: 
"The  wind  ceased,  but  after  a  while  sprung  up  from  west- 
northwest,  which  was  contrary  to  our  course.  And  so  I  turned 
and  sailed  all  the  night  to  the  east-southeast  and  sometimes 
wholly  east  and  sometimes  to  the  southeast.  This  I  did  in  or 
der  to  keep  off  the  land,  for  the  atmosphere  was  very  misty  and 
the  weather  threatening.  After  midnight  it  rained  very  hard 
until  almost  daybreak.  It  is  still  cloudy  and  threatening  to 
rain.  We  are  now  at  the  southeast  cape  of  the  island,  where 
I  hope  to  anchor  until  it  gets  clear,  in  order  to  see  the  other 
island  where  I  intend  to  go." 

From  this  narrative  it  appears  that  during  the  night  of 
October  17th  to  18th  the  route  of  Columbus  lay  from  the  most 
northern  point  of  Fernandina  to  the  most  southern  cape  there 
of,  known  today  as  Cape  Verde. 


39 


THE  ROCKY  ISLET  AND  SAOMETTO. 

A  short  entry  in  the  journal,  dated  Thursday,  October 
18th,  says:  "After  it  had  cleared  up  I  followed  the  wind  and 
went  around  the  island  as  far  as  I  could,  and  I  anchored  when 
it  was  no  longer  possible  to  sail.  But  I  did  not  go  on  shore, 
and  at  dawn  I  set  sail  again." 

The  next  note,  dated  Friday,  October  19th,  reads  as  fol 
lows:  "At  dawn  I  had  the  anchors  lifted;  then  I  sent  the 
caravel  Pinta  to  the  east  and  southeast;  and  the  caravel  Nina 
to  the  south-southeast;  and  I  with  the  ship  went  to  the  south 
east,  having  given  orders  that  they  should  keep  this  course  un 
til  midday,  but  that  both  caravels  should  then  change  their 
course  and  return  to  me.  Before  we  had  gone  three  hours  we 
saw  an  island  in  the  east,  to  which  we  directed  our  course,  and 
all  three  vessels  reached  it  before  noon  at  its  northern  point 
where  is  a  rocky  islet,  outside  of  which  is  a  reef  turning  to  the 
north.  Another  reef  is  between  it  and  the  large  island  which 
the  men  of  San  Salvador,  that  I  took  with  me,  called  Saometo, 
and  to  which  I  gave  the  name  of  la  Isabela.  The  wind  came 
from  the  north,  and  said  islet  lies  from  the  island  Fernandina, 
whence  I  had  come  from  the  west,  in  an  easterly  direction." 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  in  this  rocky  islet  the  so-called  Bird 
Rock  of  today,  situated  at  the  northwest  point  of  Crooked  Isl 
and.  Only  ten  feet  high,  600  to  700  steps  long  and  300  steps 
wide,  it  has  been  selected  in  modern  days  as  the  site  for  a 
lighthouse,  whose  flashes  guide  those  vessels  trading  between 
points  of  the  eastcoast  of  North  America  and  Cuba  and  Hayti. 
Corresponding  closely  to  the  description  given  by  Columbus, 
a  reef  runs  from  Bird  Rock  toward  the  north,  turning  thence 
toward  the  east  and  girding  the  whole  northern  coast  of  Crook 
ed  Island.  There  are  also  some  cliffs  between  Bird  Rock  and 
the  main  island.  The  "West  Indies  Pilot"  furnishes  the  fol 
lowing  statements  about  Bird  Rock:  "A  dangerous  reef  ex 
tends  of  N.W.  2  miles  from  the  northwest  point  of  Crooked 
Island;  it  then  bends  round  gradually  to  the  East  and  E.S.E. 


and  skirts  the  northern  shore  at  a  distance  of  about  a  mile.  A 
small  cay,  called  Bird  Rock,  about  ten  feet  high,  lies  X.N.W. 
about  a  mile  from  the  northwest  point  of  Crooked  Island,  and 
close  to  the  southward  of  it  there  is  a  narrow  intricate  opening 
in  the  reef,  leading  into  a  small  well  sheltered  basin  within, 
named  Portland  harbor,  in  which  there  are  3{/2  to  4  fathoms 
of  water." 


CABO  DEL  ISLEQ 
(BIRD  ROCK) 


•CABO    HERMOSO 


Returning  again  to  the  journal  of  Columbus,  an  entry 
dated  October  19th,  reads  as  follows:  "The  west  coast  of  Sao- 
meto  extends  about  twelve  leagues  as  far  as  a  cape,  which  I 
called  Cabo  Hermoso  (Cape  Beautiful) ,  because  it  is  so  beau 
tiful  and  round;  and  (the  water)  is  very  deep  and  free  from 
shoals  at  the  outside.  At  first  it  is  rocky  and  not  of  great 


41 

hight;  farther  in  it  becomes  a  sandy  beach,  like  most  of  these 
coasts.  It  is  here  that  I  am  tonight,  Friday,  anchoring  until 
morning." 

"This  coast  and  all  thai  part  of  the  island  I  saw  form  al 
most  one  beach,  and  the  island  is  the  most  enchanting  thing  I 
have  seen.  If  the  others  were  lovely,  this  is  still  more  so.  It 
has  many  trees,  which  are  very  green  and  large.  The  land  is 
higher  than  that  of  the  other  islands,  although  it  cannot  be 
called  mountainous;  yet  some  gentle  hills  enhance  with  their 
contrast  the  beauty  of  the  plains." 

Easy  as  it  was  to  recognize  in  Bird  Rock  the  "rocky 
islet,"  just  so  easy  it  is  to  recognize  in  the  southern  point  of 
Fortune  Island  the  Cabo  Hermosa  or  Cape  Beautiful.  Pass 
ing  by  very  closely,  aboard  the  Lighthouse  schooner  "Rich 
mond,"  I  found  it  corresponding  exactly  to  the  description  by 
the  Admiral.  It  is  a  rounded  plateau  of  rocks,  rising  about  15 
to  20  feet  above  the  water,  which  at  the  outside  of  the  cape 
has  a  depth  of  6  to  8  fathoms.  Further  in,  on  the  east  side  of 
the  cape,  the  rocks  disappear  and  give  place  to  a  sandy  beach. 

Equally  faithful  is  the  description  Columbus  gave  of  the 
island  in  general.  By  comparing  its  entire  western  coast  with 
one  grand  beach,  he  characterizes  the  locality  in  the  best  possi 
ble  manner,  since  the  shores  of  Crooked  and  Fortune  Island 
form  together  indeed  one  enormous  bay.  Likewise  the  Ad 
miral's  remarks  about  the  physical  appearance  of  the  island 
or  rather  of  the  two  islands  are  appropriate,  as  Crooked  Island 
possesses  such  elevations  as  Stopper  Hill  and  the  Blue  Hills 
(200  feet),  while  Fortune  Island  has  the  Fortune  Hill,  all  of 
which  are  conspicuous  to  the  eye  as  they  rise  from  perfectly 
level  plains. 

One  more  sentence  in  the  journal  helps  to  identify  the 
location.  In  closing  his  notes  under  date  "Friday,  October 
19th,"  Columbus  says:  "I  believe  that  this  Cabo  Hermoso  is 
an  island  separated  from  Saometo,  and  that  there  is  even  an 
other  small  one  midway  between ;  but  I  do  not  care  to  examine 
everything  in  detail,  because  I  could  not  do  it  in  fifty  years." 


A  glance  at  our  map  teaches  us  that  this  supposition  of 
Columbus  was  correct,  as  Saometo  or  the  Crooked  Island  of 
today  and  Cabo  Hermoso  or  Fortune  Island  are  in  fact  separ 
ated  by  the  narrow  channel,  which  is  dotted  with  two  or  three 
very  little  islets,  \vhich,  however,  can  be  made  out  only  by  ap 
proaching  more  closely. — 

According  to  the  entry  in  his  journal  under  date  of  Oc 
tober  20th,  Columbus  intended  to  visit  also  the  northeastern 
and  eastern  parts  of  Saometo.  But  the  water  was  so  shallow 
that  he  could  make  no  progress.  An  attempt  to  go  around 
the  island  in  a  southwestern  direction  failed  also.  He  there 
fore  returned  to  the  rocky  islet  (Bird  Rock)  and  decided  to 
sail  for  another  very  large  island,  of  which  the  Indians  had 
told  him  and  which  thev  called  Colba  or  Cuba. 


43 


FROM  SAOMETO  TO  CUBA. 

From  the  descriptions  the  Indians  gave  of  the  size  and 
riches  of  Cuba,  Columbus  inferred  that  this  large  island  might 
be  identical  with  Cipango,  the  great  mysterious  island  of  East 
ern  Asia.  Under  the  date  of  Wednesday,  October  24th,  he 
writes  as  follows:  "At  midnight  I  weighed  anchor  and  left 
the  island  of  Isabela  and  the  cape  of  the  rocky  islet,  which  is 
on  the  northern  side  where  I  was  lying,  in  order  to  go  to  the 
island  of  Cuba,  which  I  heard  from  these  people  is  very  large, 
having  much  trade,  and  that  there  is  gold  and  spices,  and  large 
ships  and  merchants.  And  they  told  me  that  I  should  go  to 
it  by  sailing  in  'west-southwest  direction.  From  everything 
what  the  Indians  of  these  islands  and  those  whom  I  had  on 
board  indicated  by  signs — because  I  do  not  understand  their 
language — I  believe  it  is  the  island  of  Cipango,  of  which  mar 
vellous  things  are  related.  According  to  the  globes  and  the 
maps  of  the  world  which  I  have  seen  it  must  be  in  this  region, 
and  thus  I  sailed  until  daybreak  toward  west- southwest.  At 
dawn  the  wind  calmed,  and  it  rained,  as  it  had  done  all  night. 
With  little  wind  I  remained  until  after  midday ;  then  the  wind 
began  to  blow  very  lovely,  and  I  carried  all  the  sails  of  the 
ship,  the  mainsail,  two  bonnets,  the  foresail  and  spritsail,  and 
the  boat  astern;  thus  I  continued  my  course  until  nightfall. 
Then  Cape  Verde  which  is  on  the  south  of  the  island  of  Fer- 
nandina  somewhat  toward  the  west,  was  in  northwesterly  direc 
tion  from  me,  in  a  distance  of  seven  leagues.  Then  the  wind 
was  blowing  hard,  and  as  I  did  not  know  how  far  off  the  island 
of  Cuba  was,  and  in  order  not  to  approach  it  at  night,  because 
all  the  water  round  these  islands  is  so  deep  that  no  bottom  can 
be  found  save  at  twro  lombard  shots,  I  determined  to  lower 
all  sails,  except  the  foresail.  Suddenly  the  wind  grew 
very  strong  and  I  made  much  headway  of  which  I  was  doubt 
ful;  besides,  it  was  very  misty  and  it  rained.  I  had  the  fore 
sail  taken  in  and  we  did  not  go  this  night  two  leagues." — 

Up  to  this  point  Bishop  Las  Casas  has  given  us  the  log 
book  of  Columbus  verbatim  and  unabridged,  except  the  en- 


4-1 

tries  about  the  astronomical  observations  Columbus  must  have 
made.  Beginning  with  the  entry  under  date  Thursday,  Oc 
tober  25th,  however,  Las  Casas  does  not  continue  in  this  ver 
batim  reproduction  of  the  journal,  but  limits  himself  to  a  re 
cital  of  subsequent  events  as  narrated  by  the  discoverer.  So  he 
writes:  "He  afterwards  sailed  from  sunrise  until  nine  o'clock 
in  west-southwestern  direction,  making  about  five  leagues. 
Thereafter  he  changed  his  course  to  the  west,  going  eight 
miles  an  hour  until  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  thence 
until  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  they  made  about  four- 
ty-four  miles.  At  that  time  they  saw  seven  or  eight  islands,  all 
extending  from  north  to  south,  in  a  distance  of  five  leagues." 

From  the  entry  under  date  of  Friday,  October  26th,  it  ap 
pears  that  Columbus  anchored  some  distance  south  of  those 
islands,  which  he  called  Las  Islas  de  Arena  or  Sand  Islands 
on  account  of  the  shallow  bottom  they  had.  The  Indians  he 
had  with  him  told  the  Admiral  that  to  reach  Cuba  with  their 
canoes  from  these  islands  would  take  them  a  day  and  a  half. 

According  to  the  entry  under  date  of  Saturday,  October 
27th,  the  vessels  set  sail  again  at  sunrise  and  ran  in  a  south- 
southwestern  direction  at  the  rate  of  eight  miles  an  hour  until 
one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  making  about  forty  miles.  Up  to 
nightfall  they  made  about  twenty-eight  miles  on  the  same 
course,  and  before  night  they  saw  land,  Cuba.  On  Sunday 
morning  October  28th  Columbus  entered  the  mouth  of  a  very 
beautiful  river,  the  banks  of  which  were  covered  with  trees 
rich  with  flowers  and  fruits  and  alive  with  many  birds  which 
sang  very  sweetly.  There  were  many  palms,  different  from 
those  Columbus  had  seen  in  Spain  and  Guinea.  In  the  distance 
lofty  mountain  chains  were  in  view.  Enchanted  by  this  mag 
nificent  scenery,  the  Admiral  called  the  river  and  the  port  in 
which  his  vessels  anchored,  San  Salvador. 


45 


A  part  of  the  map  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  the  Pilot  of  Columbus. 

WHAT  OLD  MAPS  AND  JOURNALS  PROVE. 

In  the  attempt  to  identify  the  true  Guanahani,  no  ques 
tion  seems  more  natural  than  if  this  might  be  possible  by  con 
sulting  maps  made  by  Columbus  himself  or  by  such  persons 
who  were  his  companions.  That  Columbus  made  charts  of  the 
track  followed  by  his  fleet  and  of  his  discoveries,  must  be  ac 
cepted  as  a  matter  of  course.  This  is  proved  also  by  various  ref 
erences  of  his  contemporaries.  The  Spanish  historiographer 
Navarrete  states  that  Queen  Isabella,  on  September  5th,  1493, 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  Admiral,  asking  him  to  send  her  the 
marine  chart  he  had  made*)  and  that  Columbus  complied  with 
this  request.  We  know  also  that  when  Alonso  de  Ojeda  in 
May,  1499,  set  out  for  his  voyage  of  discovery,  he  was  provided 
with  a  copy  of  the  track-chart  sent  home  by  Columbus.  That 
copies  of  the  same  chart  were  also  used  by  several  other  Span 
ish  explorers,  is  known  from  the  testimonials  in  the  famous  law 
suit  brought  by  the  Fiscal  Real  against  the  heirs  of  the  Ad- 

*)  "Forward  us  immediately  the  map  which  we  asked  you  to  send  us  before 
your  departure  complete  and  write  thereon  the  names,"  was  the  request.  "If 
you  don't  wish  us  to  show  the  map  to  any  one  you  should  write  so."- 


46 

miral,  Unfortunately,  of  maps  drawn  by  Columbus  with  his 
own  hand  or  under  his  supervision,  nothing  has  come  down  to 
us. 

But  there  exists  the  famous  map  by  Juan  dc  la  Cosa,  who 
was  a  companion  of  Columbus  and  master  and  part  owner  of 
the  flagship  "Santa  Maria."  He  took  part  also  in  the  second 
trip  of  Columbus.  In  May  1499,  La  Cosa  also  accompanied 
Alonso  de  Ojeda  on  his  exploring  expedition  to  Venezuela. 
Having  returned  in  June  1500,  he  set  out  again  in  October 
of  the  same  year  with  Rodrigo  de  Bastidas.  The  intervening 
time  between  these  two  expeditions  he  spent  in  the  harbor  of 
Santa  Maria.  It  was  here  that  he  made  a  map  of  the  then 
known  parts  of  the  New  World.  Drawn  on  an  ox-hide  5'9" 
long  and  3'2"  wide,  it  bears  the  legend:  "Juan  de  la  Cosa  la 
fiza  en  puerto  de  Sta.  Maria  en  afio  de  1500."  ("Juan  de  la 
Cosa  made  this  in  the  harbor  of  Santa  Maria  in  the  year 
1500.") 

This  chart,  now  preserved  in  the  Marine  Museum  at  Ma 
drid,  has  been  reproduced  more  or  less  accurately  many  times. 
In  spite  of  some  grave  errors,  as  for  instance  the  placing  of 
the  Tropic  of  Cancer  south  of  Cuba  and  Espanola,  it  is  of 
great  value  for  the  identification  of  Guanahani.  The  outlines 
of  Cuba  and  Espanola  are  fairly  correct.  North  of  these  two 
large  islands  we  see  a  group  of  smaller  ones,  the  nearest  to 
Cuba  bearing  the  name  Someto.  Bj^  its  position  as  well  as  by 
its  name  we  recognize  it  at  once  as  the  island  Saometo,  of  which 
Columbus  speaks  in  his  journal  under  the  dates  of  October 
19th  and  20th. 

Another  island  close  by,  bearing  the  name  Yumay,  is  un 
doubtedly  identical  with  the  present  Long  Island,  or  the  Fer- 
nandina  of  Columbus,  which  by  the  aborigines  was  called  Yu- 
ma.  East  of  Yurna  we  note  an  unnamed  island,  answering  to 
the  Santa  Maria  de  la  Concepcion  of  Columbus  or  Rum  Cay  of 
today.  East  of  this  another  island  bears  the  name  Guanahani, 
answering  to  Watling's  Island,  situated,  as  indicated  on  La 
Cosa's  map,  north  of  Samana. 


47 

Thus  while  La  Cosa's  map  is  an  important  piece  of  evidence 
for  the  identification  of  Guanahani,  the  weight  of  evidence  in 
creases  when  we  compare  this  map  with  charts  and  notes  of 
later  dates. 

An  old  description  of  the  Spanish  Colonies  (reproduced 
in  "Coleccion  de  documentos  ineditos  relatives  al  descubri- 
miento,"  XV.  p.  431)  contains  for  instance  the  following  sen 
tence:  "Cruanami  (Guanahani)  is  an  islet  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Guanimo.  It  is  the  first  part  of  the  Indies  discovered  by 
Columbus  and  named  by  him  San  Salvador-"  It  is  easy  to 
point  out  on  the  maps  of  the  16th  and  17th  century  that  Gu 
animo  is  identical  with  the  Cat  Island  of  today.  As  neither 
Columbus  nor  La  Cosa  ever  saw  this  island,  it  consequently 
does  not  appear  on  La  Cosa's  map.  But  we  find  it  frequently 
on  maps  of  later  dates,  as  for  instance  on  the  so-called  Turin 
map  of  1523,  on  the  map  of  Diego  Ribero  of  the  year  1529,  on 
the  map  of  Pierre  Desceliers  from  1546;  on  the  maps  of 
Thomas  Hood,  1592,  Antonio  de  Herrera,  1601,  on  the  West 
Indian  Paskaert  of  Antony  Jacobsz,  1621,  and  many  others, 
some  of  which  are  here  reproduced.  Where  its  name  and  that 
of  Guanahani  are  given,  the  latter  islet  is  always  placed  to  the 
southeast  of  Guanimo.  Its  name  appears  on  these  maps  in 
the  variations  Guanahani,  Guanihani,  Guanahami,  Guanaani 
and  Guanihana. 

A  point  of  greatest  importance  is  that  on  all  these  later 
maps  Guanimo  as  well  as  Guanahani  are  placed  correctly 
NORTH  of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  with  Guanahani  nearest  to 
that  line.  This  fact  eliminates  the  islands  Samana,  Mariguana 
and  Grand  Turk  from  competition,  as  all  these  islands  are 
SOUTH  of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer. 

There  is  still  another  important  proof  in  favor  of  the 
identity  of  Guanahani  and  Watling's  Island.  Herrera,  the  of 
ficial  historiographer  of  the  Indies,  who  had  access  to  all  docu 
ments  in  the  Royal  Archives,  states  that  Ponce  de  Leon,  when 
in  1513  he  set  out  in  search  of  Bimini,  started  from  the  port 
of  San  German  in  Porto  Rico. 


Map  of  Diego  Ribero,  1529. 


Map    in    the    Atlas    of    Batista 

Agnesfe.     Second  part  of  XVI 

century. 


B 

2    « 

15    S 

fi     'S 
§      I 

^6 


O 

g  •* 

'  cc 

ITS  s« 

c«  O 

O  r^ 

C  -t-1 

^^  3 


-M    n- 
bfj    c 

c1   * 


c     o 
—    c 


5      O 
"S       W 

' 


Map  in  the  Royal  Library 
of  Turin  (about  1523). 


Map  of  Pierre  Desceliers  de 
Arques,  1546. 


49 


Map  of  Antonio  de  Herrera, 
1601. 


Portuguesian  map  in  the  Biblio- 
tlieka  Riccardina,  Florence. 


West  Indian  Paskaert  of  Anto 
ny  Jacobsz,  1621. 


Map  in  the  Cartas  de  Indias. 

Second  part  of  the  XVI 

century. 


"After  five  days."  so  Herrera  states,  "they  reached  the  isl 
and  El  Viego,  the  position  of  which  Antonio  de  Alaminos,  the 
pilot  of  the  expedition,  gave  as  under  22°  30'  northern  latitude. 
The  next  day  the  fleet  arrived  at  one  of  the  Lucayos,  called 
Caycos.  On  the  eighth  day  the  vessels  anchored  at  another  isl 
and  called  Yaguna  in  24°.  Then  they  proceeded  to  the  island 
Manegua  in  24°  30'.  At  the  eleventh  day  they  reached  Gu- 
anahani,  which  is  in  25°  40'.  This  island  Guanahani  was  the 
first  discovered  by  Columbus  on  his  first  voyage  and  which  he 
called  San  Salvador." 


Part  of  the  map  of  Thomas  Hood,  1592,  showing  the  location  of  Guanahani 
north  of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer  and  southeast  of  Guanima. 

Alexander  von  Humboldt,  who  investigated  these  state 
ments,  found  that  Antonio  de  Alaminos,  the  pilot,  placed  in  his 
astronomic  calculations  the  positions  of  all  these  islands 
for  about  1°  15'  to  1°  30'  too  far  north.  If  these  errors  are 
taken  into  account,  we  find  that  El  Viego  would  be  identical 
with  Grand  Turk,  while  Caycos  would  be  one  of  the  Caicos 
Islands.  Yaguna  would  be  identical  with  Mariguana,  Mane 
gua  with  Samana,  while  the  name  Guanahani  remains  for 


61 

Watling's  Island,  the  true  position  of  which  is  24°  6'  northern 
latitude.*) 

So  the  statements  made  hy  Herrera  about  the  voyage  of 
Ponce  de  Leon  point  also  toward  the  identity  of  Guanahani 
with  Watling's  Island.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  1513, 
when  Ponce  de  Leon  started  on  his  journey,  the  position  of 
Guanahani  was  still  well  known.  The  perplexing  confusion  in 
regard  to  proper  names  and  location  of  the  many  islands  set  in 
much  later,  after  the  Spaniards  had  carried  off  all  the  aborig 
ines  and  when  the  islands  had  no  longer  any  valuables  left.  Ut 
terly  neglected  by  the  Spaniards,  the  Archipelago  now  became 
the  hiding-place  for  numerous  buccaneers  who  preyed  on  the 
silver  fleets  that  brought  the  treasures  of  Mexico,  Costa  Rica, 
New  Granada  and  Panama  to  Spain.  These  pirates,  mostly 
Englishmen,  did  not  know  the  beautiful  names  the  aborigines 
and  the  Spaniards  had  given  to  the  different  islands.  After 
their  own  fashion  they  gave  to  many  of  the  islands  and  cays 


*)  The  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  vol.  XLV.,  1913,  has  on 
pages  721  to  735  an  article  by  L.  D.  Scisco  on  the  track  of  Ponce  de  Leon  in  1513. 
The  author  quotes  Herrera  in  the  following  words:  "Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  finding 
himself  without  office,  determined  to  do  something  with  which  to  gain  honor  and 
increase  estate;  and  as  he  had  news  that  lands  were  found  to  the  northward  he 
resolved  to  go  to  explore  toward  that  part;  for  which  he  equipped  three  vessels, 
well  supplied  with  provisions,  people  and  seamen,  which  for  the  purpose  of  explor 
ing  are  most  necessary.  He  sailed  from  the  island  on  Thursday,  in  the  afternoon, 
on  the  3rd  of  March,  setting  out  from  the  harbor  of  San  German.  He  went  to 
Aguada  in  order  to  take  his  course  from  there.  The  night  following  he  sailed  to 
sea,  to  northwest  a  quarter  by  north,  and  the  vessels  proceeded  eight  leagues  of  a 
day's  run  until  the  sun  rose.  They  went  on  sailing  until  on  Tuesday,  the  8th  of 
the  said  month,  they  came  to  anchor  at  the  banks  of  Babueca  at  an  island  that 
they  call  El  Viejo,  which  is  in  22°  30'.  Next  day  they  anchored  in  an  islet  of 
the  Lucayos  called  Caycos.  Presently  they  anchored  in  another  called  La  Yaguna 
in  24°.  On  the  llth  of  the  same  month  they  reached  another  island  called  Ama- 
guayo  and  there  they  were  at  stop  for  repairs  .  They  passed  on  to  the  island 
called  Managua  which  is  in  24°  30'  On  the  14th  readied  Guanahani  which  is  25° 
40'  where  they  prepared  one  vessel  for  crossing  the  weatherward  gulf  of  this  island 
of  the  Lucayos.  This  island  Guanahani  was  the  first  that  the  Admiral  Don  Christobal 
Colon  discovered  and  where,  in  his  first  voyage  he  went  on  land  and  named  it 
San  Salvador." — 

Investigating  the  track  Scisco  says:  "The  term  "bascos  de  Bahueca"  in  the 
earlier  years  was  applied  to  the  series  of  shoals  extending  from  Grand  Turk 
Island  easterly  to  Navidad  Bank.  In  later  years  the  term  became  restricted  to 
the  Mouchior  Carre  Bank  and  finally  became  disused.  El  Viejo  =  Old  Man,  of 
Ponce  de  Leon's  voyage,  was  Grand  Turk,  the  only  island  on  these  banks  suitable 


52 

those  names  which  we  read  on  the  maps  of  today.  Saometo, 
the  Isabela  of  Columbus,  received  the  less  poetical  name  Crook 
ed  Island;  Yuma  or  Fernandina  became  known  as  Long  Isl 
and;  Santa  Maria  de  la  Concepcion  was  called  Rum  Cay,  a 
name  suggesting  that  the  buccaneers  had  here  a  depot  of  that 
intoxicating  beverage.  Guanima  also  changed  its  name  and 
became  known  as  the  Cat  Island;  and  Guanahani,  the  San 
Salvador  of  Columbus,  was  named  after  George  Watling,  a 
daring  privateer  who  after  a  rough  life  settled  down  there. 

*         * 

Our  investigations  as  to  the  true  location  of  Guanahani 
are  herewith  closed.    The  results  are  as  follows: 

1.  Tlie  description  of  Guanahani,  as  given  by  Columbus  and 
Las  Casas,  apply  to  Watling' 8  Island,  and  to  this  island 
only. 

2.  If  the  beach  under  Riding  Rock  Point  on  the  west  coast 
is  accepted  as  the  landfall  of  Columbus,  and  if  from  that 


for  anchorage.  Maps  of  later  times  now  and  then  applied  the  name  to  one  of  the 
small  islets  lying  sou,th  from  Grand  Turk.  In  early  maps  the  modern  Cakos 
group  is  easily  recognizable  by  its  quadruplat  of  islands  lying  in  chain.  Which  one 
of  this  group  was  the  Caycos  of  Ponce  de  Leon  it  would  be  somewhat  rash  to 
say  but  the  Ilibero  map  and  some  others  seem  to  attach  the  name  more  especially 
to  the  modern  North  Caicos.  The  next  islands  reached  by  the  explorers,  La  Yaguna 
and  Amaguayo,  will  be  sought  in  vain  in  the  more  familiar  Spanish  maps  of  the 
time.  These  went  out  of  use  among  Spaniards  very  early.  The  Silviati  map, 
however,  seems  to  identify  them  as  Mariguana  and  Plana  Cays  respectively.  The 
next  island,  Manegua,  is  easily  traced.  It  is  modern  Samana.  The  island  Guanahani, 
made  famous  by  Columbus,  is  identified  with  Watling's  island  by  modern  students  of 
the  Columbian  voyages,  and  the  evidence  of  early  Spanish  maps  bears  out  the 
conclusion.  The  foregoing  identifications  show  that  Ponce  de  Leon  skirted  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Bahamas." 

In  regard  to  Herrera's  statements  about  the  latitude  of  the  different  islands 
Scisco  says:  "In  Herrera's  text  it  will  be  noted  that  El  Viego  is  given  latitude  22° 
30'  and  Guanahani  25°  40'.  The  true  latitudes  of  these  islands  are  otherwise  on 
modern  charts,  however.  The  center  of  Grand  Turk  is  at  21°  28'  and  that  of  Wat- 
ling's  at  24°  2'.  Seemingly  the  record  of  latitudes  made  by  Ponce  de  Leon  gave 
him  an  excess  reading  of  about  one  degree  in  latitude  21°  30'  and  an  excess  of 
about  1°  10'  in  latitude  24°.  Assuming  that  this  error  increased  toward  the  nortli 
in  regular  ratio  it  becomes  possible  to  construct  a  tentative  scale  of  corrected 
latitudes  wherewith  to  check  the  ten  statements  of  latitude  that  Mcrrera  offers.  By 
this  scale  Grand  Turk  assumes  its  true  position  at  21°  28';  Plana  Cays  take  a 
tentative  location  of  22°  41';  as  against  tru,e  latitude  22°  36';  Samana  takes  the 
tentative  location  of  23°  5'  which  is  also  its  true  latitude;  Watling's  assumes  its 
true  position  of  24°  2',  and  the  Florida  landfall  takes  tentative  latitude  27°  40'. 


place  we  follow  the  track  of  the  Admiral  through  the  Ba 
hamas  to  Cuba,  the  log-book  of  Columbus  has  no  such  con 
tradictions  or  inexplicable  passages  as  confronted  all  other 
scholars  who  tried  to  solve  the  Guanahani-Question.  These 
difficulties  were  but  natural,  as  it  was  impossible  that  the 
statements  of  the  log-book  could  fit  if  the  landing  place 
was  sought  at  a  false  spot.  The  absolute  conformity  of  the 
descriptions,  as  given  by  Columbus,  with  the  still  existing 
conditions  and  facts,  proves  that  the  Admiral  in  making 
the  entries  in  his  journal  not  only  observed  great  care,  but 
very  often  went  into  details. 

3-  Close  investigations  of  the  map  made  by  Juan  de  la  Cosa 
and  of  other  maps  of  the  16th  and  17th  century,  together 
with  the  notes  given  by  Herrera  about  the  expedition  of 
Ponce  de  Leon  to  Bimini  also  prove  that  Guanahani  and 
Watling's  Island  are  identical. 


THE  LAST  RESTING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS 


THE  LAST  RESTING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS 


THE  SANCTUARY  OF  THE  CATHEDRAL  AT  SANTO  DOMINGO 

After  a  drawing1    by   Rudolf   Cronau. 
The   location  of   Columbus's  'Vault   is  indicated  by   the  beam  of   sunlight. 


THE  LAST  RESTING  PLACE  OF  COLUMBUS 


|O    the   many   mysteries   that   surround   the   life   of 
Christopher  Columbus  and  have  perplexed  his  biog 
raphers,  a  caprice  of  accident  added  during  the  for 
mer  century  another  one,  the  question:   "Where  are 
ilie  remains  of  Columbus? 

While  not  less  than  sixteen  Italian  towns  have  claimed  the 
honor  of  being  the  birthplace  of  the  great  discoverer,  the  mag 
nificent  cathedrals  of  two  widely  separated  cities  strenuously 
claimed  to  possess  his  ashes.  The  discussion  of  this  question 
had  not  only  resulted  in  hot  disputes,  but  at  times  became  an 
international  affair.  Determined  to  investigate  this  burning 
question,  and,  if  possible,  to  remove  it  from  the  domain  of 
doubt,  I  went  in  December  of  1890  to  Santo  Domingo. 

*         * 

It  was  on  the  20th  day  of  May,  1506,  that  Columbus,  the 
discoverer  of  a  New  World,  passed  away-  His  death  occurred 
at  Valladolid  in  Spain.  A  few  days  before  his  departure  Co 
lumbus  had  expressed  the  desire  to  be  buried  in  Espanola,  the 
island  he  loved  most.  Before  this  wish  could  be  fulfilled  many 
years  passed  by.  Santo  Domingo,  the  capital  of  Espanola,  had 
no  place  where  the  precious  ashes  could  be  deposited  safely. 
The  cathedral,  planned  for  that  city,  had  not  yet  been  begun 
and  it  was  not  finished  till  1540. 

So  the  body  of  the  great  discoverer  was  interred  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Francis  in  Valladolid.  Later  on,  in  1509  or 
1513,  it  was  removed  to  the  Carthusian  Monastery  of  Las  Cue- 
vas  near  Seville. 

When  Diego,  the  son  of  Columbus,  died,  in  1526,  the  re 
mains  were  also  deposited  there,  to  be  transferred  later,  to 
gether  with  those  of  his  father,  to  Santo  Domingo,  as  Emperor 
Charles  V  had  granted  permission  that  the  great  chapel  of  the 
cathedral  be  used  for  the  sepulchre  of  the  Columbus  family. 


60 

Royal  provisions  relating  to  the  removal  of  the  bodies  to  Santo 
Domingo,  bearing  dates  of  June  2,  1537,  August  22,  1539,  and 
November  5,  1*540,  are  still  existing. 

At  what  time  the  removal  of  the  remains  of  the  great  Ad 
miral  and  his  son  took  place,  we  do  not  know.  As  the  cathe 
dral  at  Santo  Domingo  was  consecrated  in  1541  it  may  be  that 
the  transfer  occurred  in  the  same  year  or  a  little  later.  As  in 
the  meantime  the  corpses  as  well  as  the  original  coffins,  that 
were  perhaps  of  wood,  may  have  been  decayed,  it  was  most 
probably  then  that  the  remaining  bones  were  collected  in  two 
small  leaden  caskets,  which  after  their  arrival  in  Santo  Domin 
go  were  deposited  in  the  cathedral.  Evidence  that  this  re 
moval  had  been  accomplished  before  the  year  1549,  we  have  in 
a  statement  of  the  first  Archbishop  of  Santo  Domingo,  who  in 
that  year  wrote:  "The  tomb  of  Don  Cristobal  Colon,  which 
contains  his  bones,  is  much  venerated  in  this  cathedral."  In 
later  documents  we  hear  that  when  in  1655  the  English  at 
tacked  the  city,  the  Archbishop  Francisco  Pio,  to  prevent  the 
profanation  of  the  tombs,  ordered  that  they  should  be  covered 
with  earth  and  that  every  sign  that  might  betray  their  location 
should  be  obliterated,  "especially  at  the  tomb  of  the  old  Ad 
miral,  which  is  on  the  gospel  side  of  my  church  and  chapel." 

Again,  a  small  printed  volume,  entitled:  "Synodo  Dio- 
cesana  del  Arzobispano  de  Santo  Domingo,"  printed  in  1683, 
states:  "The  bones  of  C.  Colon  are  there  in  a  leaden  case  in 
the  Presbytery,  beside  the  wall  of  the  High  Altar,  together 
with  those  of  Don  Luis,  which  are  on  the  opposite  side,  accord 
ing  to  the  traditions  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  the  island." 
This  last  sentence  indicates  undoubtedly  that  since  the  attack 
of  the  English  in  1655,  the  site  of  the  Admiral's  resting  place 
had  no  mark  whatever  and  was  known  only  by  tradition. 

This  fact  is  proved  also  by  the  following  statement  of  the 
famous  French  historian  Moreau  de  St.  Mery,  who  in  1783, 
and  again  in  1787,  visited  the  city  and  endeavored  in  vain  to 
determine  the  exact  location  of  Columbus's  tomb.  Finding 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  absolute  doubt  and  uncertainty,  he  ex 
pressed  his  disappointment  in  those  eloquent  words:  "What  a 


61 

subject  for  the  reflection  of  the  philosopher!  Scarcely  are  three 
hundred  years  past  since  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  and 
already  we  hardly  know  what  has  hecoine  of  the  precious  re 
mains  of  the  sagacious,  enterprising  and  intrepid  discoverer. 
We  see  him  expressing  an  anxious  solicitude  that  his  ashes  may 
repose  in  the  capital  of  the  immense  island  which  first  establish" 
ed  the  truth  of  the  existence  of  a  western  hemisphere ;  they  are 
transported  hither  posterior  to  the  construction  of  the  principal 
edifice,  the  cathedral,  and  yet — O  supine  indifference  for  all 
that  is  truly  noble! — not  a  mausoleum,  not  a  monument ,  not 
even  an  inscription  to  tell  where  they  lie!" — 


WHOSE  REMAINS  WERE  THEY? 

A  few  years  after  the  French  historian's  visit  Spain  was 
compelled  by  the  Treaty  of  Basle  to  cede  the  island  of  Espa- 
nola  to  France.  The  treaty,  concluded  in  1795,  provided  that 
Spain  might  remove  from  Santo  Domingo  such  property  as 
she  might  desire.  The  Duke  of  Veraguas,  a  descendant  of  the 
Columbus  family,  now  remembered  that  the  ashes  of  his  great 
ancestor  were  still  in.  Santo  Domingo.  Arguing  that  it  would 
be  unworthy  of  Spain  that  the  bones  of  its  greatest  Admiral 
should  rest  under  a  foreign  flag,  he  requested  the  removal  of 
the  remains  to  the  cathedral  at  Havana.  As  he  offered  to  bear 
all  expenses  of  such  transference,  the  Spanish  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  Royal  Armada,  Gabriel  de  Aristizabal  was 
commissioned  to  receive  the  remains. 

As  has  been  described  extensively  by  Washington  Irving 
in  Appendix  No.  1  to  his  book  on  Columbus,  the  Spanish  Lieu 
tenant- General  appeared  on  December  20th,  1795,  in  the  Ca 
thedral  with  a  group  of  distinguished  Spaniards,  among  them 
the  Archbishop,  to  exhume  the  remains  of  Columbus.  But  as 
there  were  no  exterior  signs  at  what  place  his  tomb  was  situat 
ed,  they  were  guided  wholly  by  the  tradition,  that  the  Admiral 
was  interred  at  the  right  side  of  the  Altar.  There  a  small 
vault  was  found.  The  official  document,written  on  the  same 
day  by  Hidalgo,  the  secretary  of  the  proceedings,  states  as 
follows : 

"On  December  20th,  1795,  a  vault  was  opened,  located  in 
the  sanctuary  on  the  right  or  gospel  side,  near  the  main  wall 
and  in  the  platform  before  the  high  altar.  The  capacity  of 
the  vault  was  about  one  cubic  yard.  Therein  were  found  some 
thin  sheets  of  lead  about  eleven  inches  long,  which  had  evident 
ly  been  parts  of  a  box  or  case  of  that  metal ;  also  some  bones  of 
legs  and  arms  and  various  other  parts  of  some  deceased  person. 
These  were  collected  in  a  large  tray  together  with  all  the  dust, 
which,  from  the  fragments  of  some  small  bones  and  its  color 


63 

were  recognized  as  the  remains  of  the  same  eorpse.  The  whole 
was  placed  in  a  gilded  leaden  coffin,  with  an  iron  lock;  this 
was  locked,  and  the  key  was  delivered  to  the  most  illustrious 
Archbishop." 

After  a  solemn  High  Mass  had  been  performed,  these  re 
mains  were  borne  with  military  honors  to  Havana  and  depos 
ited  in  a  niche  prepared  in  the  wall  of  the  presbytery  of  the 
cathedral.  Later  this  niche  was  closed  with  a  slab  of  marble, 
showing  an  entirely  imaginary  portrait  of  Columbus,  and  be 
neath  the  inscription  in  Spanish: 

"()  remains  and  image  of  the  great  Columbus,  for  a 

thousand  ages  rest  secured  in  this  urn,  and  in 

the  remembrance  of  our  nation." 


AN  IMPORTANT  FIND,  THAT  CAUSED  HOT 

DISPUTES. 


Eighty-one  years  passed  by.  Then  the  conviction  that  the 
remains  of  Columbus  were  at  rest  in  Havana,  was  suddenly 
shaken.  When  in  1877  the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Domingo  sadly 
needed  repair,  the  Apostolic  Delegate  to  Santo  Domingo, 
Haiti  and  Venezuela,  Bishop  Rocco  Cocchia,  who  later  became 
Archbishop  of  Chieti,  Italy,  took  special  interest  in  the  work 
of  restoration.  So  did  Rev.  Francis  Xavier  Billini,  the  Vicar 
of  the  Cathedral.  Both  the  priests  were  Italians.  These  two 
employed  Senor  Jose  Maria  Castilla,  a  Spanish  civil  engineer 
from  Cuba,  as  director  of  the  actual  work,  which  was  begun  in 


ALTAR 


GOSPEL  SIDE                                 EPISTELSIDE 

I 

n 

m 

•m^mmc**. 

Original  Plan  of  the   Sanctuary. 
I.     Vault,   discovered   Sept.    10,    1877,   supposed   to   have   contained  the 

remains  of  Christopher  Columbus. 

II.     Vault,  emptied  on  Dec.  26,  1795.  supposed  to  have  contained  the  re 
mains  of  Diego  Colon. 
III.     Vault,  of  Don  Luis  Colon,  discovered  May   14,  1877. 

April  1877.  During  the  process  of  restoration  the  workmen 
discovered  on  May  14th  on  the  left  or  Epistle  side  of  the  Sanc 
tuary  a  small  vault,  containing  the  fragments  of  a  leaden  case 
together  with  human  bones.  An  inscription  on  the  lid  of  the 
case  was  deciphered  as  follows: 

El  Almirante  Don  Luis  Colon,  Duque  de  Varaguas 
y  Marques  de  .  .  .    " 


65 

the  last  word  illegible  from  erosion.  This  find  was  the  first 
indication  that  Don  Luis  Colon,  the  grandson  of  Christopher 
Columbus,  born  1520  in  Santo  Domingo  and  died  1572  in 
Oran,  had  been  buried  in  the  cathedral  also. 

On  this  discovery  the  authorities  of  the  church  were  in 
vited  to  extend  their  investigations  over  the  whole  ground  of 
the  sanctuary,  in  order  to  see  if  other  distinguished  persons 
might  have  been  buried  there.  But  as  the  Bishop  Rocco  Coc- 
chia  was  absent  in  the  interior  of  the  island,  the  matter  was 
delayed  till  his  return.  Then  the  work  of  investigation  was 
taken  up  again.  On  September  9th  at  the  right  or  presbytery 
side  the  vault  was  found  which  in  1795  had  been  emptied  by 
the  Spaniards.  On  the  day  following,  Monday,  September 
10th,  in  the  presence  of  Vicar  Billini  and  the  engineer  Castilla, 
the  workingmen  sounded  the  space  between  that  empty  vault 
and  the  wall  of  the  cathedral.  The  result  was  the  discovery  of 
a  somewhat  larger  vault,  separated  from  the  empty  vault  by 
a  six-inch  wall  and  covered  by  a  large  rough  stone  slab.  After 
breaking  away  a  piece  of  that  slab  an  object  like  a  box  could 
be  seen  in  the  vault. 

At  this  stage  Bishop  Rocco  Cocchia  was  notified  at  once, 
also  the  Spanish  consul  Jose  Manuel  Echeverri  and  the  Italian 
consul  Luigi  Cambiaso.  All  reached  the  Cathedral  at  the  same 
time.  The  vault  was  at  that  time  only  partially  opened.  The 
bishop  ordered  the  aperture  widened,  so  that  a  better  inspec 
tion  of  the  vault  and  its  contents  might  be  obtained.  By  intro 
ducing  his  arm  into  the  opening,  he  discovered  that  the  object 
in  the  vault  was  a  leaden  case,  the  upper  side  of  which  wras  in- 
crusted  with  lime.  After  breaking  off  a  part  of  this  crust,  the 
bishop  noticed  an  inscription  and  was  able  to  read  the  letters 
Per  Ate,  which  all  persons  around  the  vault  with 
one  voice  interpreted  as  "Primero  Almirante,"  "the  first 
Admiral."  As  only  Columbus  had  held  this  title,  the  letters 
were  regarded  as  a  strong  indication  that  the  leaden  case  might 
contain  his  remains.  Not  allowing  anyone  to  go  further  with 
the  work,  the  bishop  ordered  that  all  should  leave  the  cathedral, 
the  doors  of  which  were  closed  and  locked.  On  request  the  gov 
ernment  at  once  sent  a  number  of  sentinels,  who  surrounded 


66 

the  cathedral.  In  the  meantime  the  Bishop  by  special  letters 
invited  the  President  and  the  Cabinet  of  the  Dominican  Re 
public,  as  well  as  the  principal  ecclesiastical,  civil  and  military 
authorities  and  furthermore  all  foreign  consuls,  to  be  present 
at  four  and  a  half  o'clock  that  same  afternoon,  when  the  vault 
and  its  contents  would  be  publicly  and  carefully  examined. 

In  the  presence  of  this  high  assemblage  the  stone  slab  was 
removed,  the  box  taken  out  and  carefully  investigated.  As  it 
had  rested  in  the  absolutely  dry  vault  upon  two  bricks,  it 
proved  to  be  in  a  state  of  fair  preservation,  but  dull  in  color 
and  covered  by  a  coating  of  oxide,  the  unmistakable  indica 
tions  of  old  age.  The  closed  box  was  21  centimeters  or  9 
inches  high,  42  cm.  or  16%  inches  long  and  21  cm.  or  9  inches 
wide.  Its  hinged  and  overlapping  cover  had  on  its  top  the 
abbreviations : 

D.  de  la  A.  per.  Ate. 

which  has  been  interpreted  to  mean  "Descubridor  de  la  Ame 
rica.  Primer  Almirante"  that  is  "Discoverer  of  America,  first 
Admiral."  Further  investigations  disclosed,  that  on  the  left 
side,  and  also  on  the  front  side  of  the  box  the  letter  C  was 
rudely  engraved,  while  on  the  right  side  the  letter  A  was  found. 


Letters  engraved  on  the  sides  of  the  coffin.     Exact  size. 

These  letters  are  believed  as  standing  for  the  initials  of  the 
words : 

"Cristoval  Colon,  Almirante." 

After  lifting  the  hinged  cover  another  abbreviated  inscrip 
tion,  in  German  Gothic  letters,  was  discovered  on  the  inside 
of  the  lid: 


67 

,  Illtrc  y  Esdo  Varon 

Dn.  Criztoval  Colon 
This  inscription  has  been  interpreted  as: 

"Illustre  y  Esclarecido  Varon  Don  Cristoval  Colon." 
"Illustrious  and  famous  Baron  Christopher  Columbus." 
An  examination  of  the  contents  of  the  box  revealed  human  re 
mains,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  parts  reduced  to  dust. 
Among  this  dust  and  mold  two  small  iron  screws  and  a  bullet 
of  lead  were  found.    An  explanation  of  their  being  there  no 
one  was  able  to  give  at  that  time. 

At  the  end  of  these  investigations  a  public  declaration 
was  made,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  foreign  consuls,  that  the 
real  resting  place  of  the  Admiral's  body  had  been  found  and 
positively  identified.  The  Spanish  Consul,  Senor  Jose  M.  de 
Kcheverri,who  was  present,  found  no  reason  for  suspecting  the 
good  faith  of  the  examination,  nor  the  genuineness  of  the  grave 
and  remains.  On  the  contrary,  he  manifested  his  belief  in  that 
which  he  had  seen  by  at  once  raising  the  claim  in  the  name  of 
his  government  for  the  delivery  of  the  remains  of  the  Admiral, 
which  in  1795,  as  now  was  evident,  were  not  transferred  to 
Cuba  as  intended. 

The  news  of  the  discovery,  reported  by  the  different  con 
suls  to  their  governments  and  made  known  by  Bishop  Rocco 
Cocchia  in  a  pastoral  letter  ( "Descubrimiento  de  las  verdade- 
ros  restos  de  Cristobal  Colon:  Carte  pastoral,  Santo  Domingo, 
1877.")  spread  rapidly  and  caused  everywhere  the  greatest  in 
terest.  But  what  was  regarded  as  glad  tidings  by  all  inhab 
itants  of  the  Dominican  Republic,  was  received  with  deep  anger 
and  indignation  by  the  ecclesiastic  authorities  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Havana  and  the  Spanish  government.  Finding  that  their 
claim  to  the  true  relics  of  Columbus  was  endangered,  they  at 
once  accused  the  Bishop  Cocchia  and  the  other  dignitaries  of 
the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Domingo  of  being  the  authors  of  a 
bold  fraud,  charging  them  with  having  manufactured  the 
leaden  box,  filling  it  with  bones,  scratching  the  inscriptions 
thereon,  digging  the  vault  and  preparing  a  dramatic  resurrec 
tion  tableau,  at  which  the  foreign  consuls  assisted  either  as 
dupes  or  as  conscious  principals  in  the  deception. 


68 

To  uncover  this  trickery,  consul  Echeverri  was  ordered,  in 
January  1878,  to  procure  and  forward  to  Spain  the  following 
items  of  information: 

First.  A  legalized  copy  of  the  act  of  examination  of  the 
human  remains. 

Second.     Photographic  reproductions  of  the  leaden  coffin, 
of  its  four  sides  and  of  the  cover. 

Third.  A  certificate  from  the  scientific  faculty,  giving  the 
state  of  preservation  in  which  the  said  coffin  was 
found. 

Fourth.  A  detailed  and  sufficient  report,  showing,  if  at  any 
time  the  pavement  of  the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Do 
mingo  had  been  removed. 

In  compliance  with  this  order,  Consul  Echeverri  requested 
a  second  investigation  of  the  portentous  case  and  its  contents. 
This  investigation  was  made  on  January  2d,  1878,  by  the 
Sefiores  Don  Pedro  M.  Pineyro,  Don  Mariano  Socarrez  and 
Don  Manual  Duran,  Doctors  of  Medicine  and  Surgery.  Dur 
ing  the  process  of  this  most  thorough  examination  the  above 
named  gentlemen,  on  remoA'ing  the  dust  of  the  bones,  which 
lay  in  the  box,  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  case  a  small  plate  of 
silver  of  quadrangular  form,  eighty-seven  millimeters  long  and 
thirty- two  millimeters  wide.  This  plate  had  two  circular  holes, 
which  coincided  with  two  others  which  were  to  be  seen  in  the 
back  of  the  leaden  box.  Now  an  explanation  for  the  existence 
of  the  two  little  screws,  which  had  been  found  among  the  mold 
during  the  first  examination,  was  easy.  Fitting  exactly  to  all 
the  holes,  these  screws  indicated  that  the  little  silver  plate  had 
originally  been  affixed  inside  of  the  case,  but  had  become 
loosened  therefrom  in  time  and  slipped  among  the  human  dust. 

This  little  silver  plate  contains  on  each  side  inscriptions, 
which  are  reproduced  here  in  full  size.  The  shorter  one  has 
been  interpreted  as  "Urna  Cristoval  Colon,"  while  the  longer 
one,  the  most  significant  and  important  of  all  inscriptions,  has 
been  interpreted  to  mean:  ''Ultima  parte  de  los  restos  del  pri 
mer  Almirante,  Don  Cristoval  Colon,  Descubridor."  "Last 


69 

parts  of  the  remains  of  the  first  Admiral,  Don  Christopher  Co 
lumbus,  the  Discoverer." 

In  spite  of  this  additional  evidence  the  Spanish  Govern 
ment,  however,  made  great  efforts  to  uphold  the  claim  of  the 
Cathedral  at  Havana  as  the  depository  of  the  remains  of  Co 
lumbus,  and  Senor  Antonio  Lopez  Prieto,  a  historian  living  in 
Havana,  was  commissioned  to  pen  in  defense  of  these  relics  an 
elaborate  report,  that  appeared  under  the  title:  "Los  restos  de 
Colon,  Eixamen  historico-critico"  (Havana  1879).  Addressed 
to  the  Captain-General  of  Cuba,  it  resorts  to  able  and  astute 
ingenuity  to  prove  the  remains,  transferred  to  Havana  in  1795, 
to  have  been  the  genuine  remains  of  the  Admiral.  Senor  Man 
ual  Colmeiro  supplemented  these  arguments  with  a  report  to 
the  Royal  Academy  of  History  of  Madrid,  which  later  on  was 
presented  to  the  King  and  published  by  the  Government.  Not 
yet  satisfied,  the  Spanish  Government  indicated  her  resolution 
to  insist  on  her  claims,  by  recalling  in  disgrace  her  representa 
tive  in  Santo  Domingo,  Don  Jose  Manuel  de  Echeverri,  who 
had  been  present  at  the  investigation  of  the  tomb  at  Santo  Do 
mingo  and  had  reported  favorably  about  the  discovery. 

Of  course  the  many  direct  and  indirect  attacks  on  the 
veracity  and  good  faith  of  Bishop  Rocco  Cocchia,  representing 
him  as  an  audacious  impostor,  were  rejected  with  great  heat. 
Firmly  maintaining  that  a  mistake  had  been  made  in  1795  by 
Aristizabal,  the  bishop  insisted  that  only  those  remains  newly 
discovered  were  the  true  relics  of  Christopher  Columbus.  The 
result  was  a  hot  controversy  which  lasted  for  years  and  pro 
duced  a  flood  of  pamphlets  and  bulletins,  in  which  each  side 
tried  its  best  to  hold  its  claims  aloft. 

The  most  notable  of  these  tracts  are  the  following:  Rocco 
Cocchia,  "Los  restos  de  Colon"  (Santo  Domingo,  1879)  ;  Emi- 
liano  Tejera,  "Los  restos  de  Colon  en  Santo  Domingo"  (San 
to  Domingo,  1878)  ;  "Los  dos  restos  de  Cristobal  Colon  exhu- 
mados  de  la  Catedral  de  Santo  Domingo  en  1795  i  1877"  (San 
to  Domingo,  1879)  ;  Lopez  Prieto,  "Los  restos  de  Colon,  exa- 
men  historico  critico"  (Havana,  1879)  ;  "Informe  sobre  los 
restos  de  Colon."  (Havana,  1879)  ;  Manuel  Colmeiro,  "Los 


70 

restos  de  Colon:  inforHie  de  la  Real  Academia  de  la  Historia 
o  Madrid"  (Madrid,  1879);  J.  tie  Armas,  "Las  cenizas  de 
Cristobal  Colon:  suplantades  en  la  eatedral  de  Santo  Domin 
go"  (Caracas,  1881)  ;  Trarers  Ticias,  "Christopher  Coliuubus, 
a  monograph  of  his  true  burial  place"  (London,  1879)  ;  Juan 
Ascnsio,  "Los  restos  de  Cristoval  Colon:  estan  en  la  Habana" 
(Sevilla,  1881) ;  Jose  Manuel  de  Ecchcrerri,  "Do  existen  de- 
positas  las  cenizas  de  Cristobal  Colon  f  (Santander,  1878)  ; 
II curt/  Harrisse,  "Los  restos  de  Don  Cristoval  Colon"  (Se 
villa,  1878)  ;  "Les  sepultures  de  Christophe  Colomb"  (Paris, 
1879)  ;  Tommaso  Belg ratio,  "Sulla  reeense  delle  casa  di  Co- 
lomlx)"  (Geima,  1878).  To  these  publications  Bocco  Cocchia. 
who  in  the  meantime  had  been  made  Archbishop  of  Chieti, 
Italy,  added  in  1892  another  book,  bearing  the  title  "Cristoforo 
Colombo  e  le  sue  ceneri."  Printed  in  Chieti,  it  is  perhaps  the 
most  exhaustive  and  important  of  all  the  publications,  as  here 
the  principal  witness  in  this  question  gives  a  full  statement  of 
his  case. 

Besides  these  publications  there  appeared  numerous  arti 
cles  in  magazines,  newspapers  and  scientific  periodicals. 


71 


THE  AUTHOR'S  INVESTIGATION  IN  JANUARY 

1891. 

Such  was  the  situation,  when  in  December  1890  I  arrived 
in  the  city  of  Santo  Domingo. 

Being  the  bearer  of  high  credentials  from  the  German 
Government,  I  found,  when  I  expressed  my  desire  to  invest 
igate  the  much  disputed  remains  of  Columbus,  a  smooth  way. 
The  ecclesiastical  authorities,  as  well  as  the  national  and  mun 
icipal  government  of  Santo  Domingo,  consented  gladly  that  a 
foreign  and  therefore  absolutely  disinterested  scholar,  whose 
only  goal  was  to  find  the  truth,  might  have  an  opportunity  to 
judge  their  case.  Since  the  discovery  of  the  remains  and  the 
second  investigation  on  January  2,  1878,  no  other  investiga 
tion  had  taken  place  nor  had  been  permitted.  To  prevent  any 
undueness,  the  remains,  together  with  the  leaden  casket,  had 
l>een  placed  in  a  glass  case,  sealed  up  and  deposited  in  a  cell 
behind  the  first  side  chapel  at  the  left  of  the  great  altar.  Ut 
most  care  had  also  been  taken  to  guard  the  precious  relics.  The 
doors  leading  into  the  cell  were  locked  with  three  different 
keys,  one  of  which  was  kept  by  the  archbishop,  while  the  other 
two  were  deposited  with  the  municipal  and  national  author 
ities.  Strict  regulations  required  that  the  room  should  be 
opened  only  in  the  presence  of  one  official  connected  with  the 
church  and  two  delegates  of  the  municipal  and  national  gov 
ernment.  Permission  to  view  the  remains  was  granted  very 
rarely,  and  a  record  was  kept  of  all  visitors.  It  was  on  the 
morning  of  Sunday,  January  11,  1891,  when  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  several  other  of 
ficers  of  the  national  and  municipal  government  assembled  in 
the  cathedral  to  be  witnesses  of  my  investigations.  There  were 
also  all  the  consuls  of  those  foreign  governments  having  repre 
sentatives  in  Santo  Domingo.  Besides,  several  prominent  citi 
zens  were  present,  among  them  Emiliano  Tejera,  the  author  of 
the  tract  "Los  restos  de  Colon." 


72 

After  the  door  to  the  cell  in  which  the  precious  relics  were 
kept,  had  been  opened,  I  perceived  in  the  centre  of  the  room 
a  rather  large  chest,  containing  the  disputed  coffin.  Like  the 
door  this  chest  also  was  opened  by  several  different  keys.  And 
now  the  leaden  casket  became  visible.  I  found  it  enclosed  in 
an  octagonal  case  of  glass,  the  slabs  of  which  were  held  to 
gether  by  strong  strips  of  satin-wood.  The  case  was  ornament 
ed  with  silver  handles.  This  glass-case  was  in  its  turn  secured 
with  three  different  locks,  to  be  opened  by  means  of  several 
keys.  For  further  protection  against  being  opened,  a  broad 
white  satin  ribbon  had  in  1878  been  wound  several  times 
around  the  glass-case,  and  sealed  with  the  official  seals  of  the 
Government  and  the  Church,  as  well  as  of  all  the  Consulates 
of  Spain,  Italy,  Germany,  England,  France,  Holland  and  the 
United  States. 

In  the  presence  of  the  witnesses  enumerated  above,  the 
glass-case  and  its  contents  were  now  lifted  out  and  placed  on 
a  brocade-covered  table,  in  the  side  nave  of  the  church,  where 
there  was  full  daylight  and  everyone  had  a  chance  to  follow 
the  proceedings.  Beginning  my  investigations,  I  observed 
that  the  lead  coffin  was  open;  its  lid  having  been  turned  back 
and  fastened  to  the  cover  of  the  glass-case,  so  that  the  human 
remains  lying  inside  were  plainly  visible.  A  number  of  verte 
brae  of  the  neck  and  back,  and  parts  of  the  arm  and  leg  bones 
proved  well  preserved.  A  small  vessel  of  glass  contained  the 
dust,  which  had  been  collected  at  the  bottom  of  the  coffin.  Fur 
thermore,  one  could  see  the  little  silver  plate  covered  with  in 
scriptions,  also  the  round  bullet,  the  latter  placed  outside  of 
the  leaden  coffin. 

Upon  the  request  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  all  the 
consuls  of  the  foreign  governments  inspected  the  different  seals 
placed  upon  the  silk  ribbon  wound  about  the  glass-case.  After 
having  found  all  seals  intact,  they  were  broken,  the  ribbon 
loosened,  the  glass-case  opened  by  means  of  three  keys,  and 
the  lead  coffin  lifted  out.  Now  the  examination  could  be  car 
ried  on  in  the  most  careful  way.  I  found  the  coffin  itself  dull 
gray  in  color  and  very  much  oxidized ;  some  parts  were  dented, 


73 


The  coffin  of  Christopher  Columbus. 

After  the  drawing  made  by  R.  Cronau  on  January  11,  1891, 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Santo  Domingo. 

as  if  sunk  in  by  its  own  weight.  In  other  respects  it  was  fairly 
well  preserved.  A  few  fragments  of  lead  which  had  broken  off 
in  time  I  found  carefully  wrapped  in  a  piece  of  paper.  The 
impression  I  gained  from  the  appearance  of  the  casket  was 
that  of  old  age.  It  reminded  me  strongly  of  similar  coffins  I 
had  seen  in  vaults  in  Germany,  Austria  and  other  countries. 


74 


THE  INSCRIPTIONS  ON  THE  CASKET. 

As  the  question  of  the  authenticity  of  the  remains  rests 
chiefly  on  the  integrity  of  the  inscriptions  found  on  the  casket 
and  on  the  little  silver  plate,  and  as  the  Spanish  authorities  had 
made  their  attacks  mainly  on  the  ground  that  the  character  of 
these  inscriptions  would  not  show  them  to  be  contemporaneous 
with  the  time  of  the  removal  of  the  remains  from  Spain  to  Es- 
paiiola,  but  "quite  modern  and  therefore  unmistakable  proof 
of  imposture,"  it  seemed  to  me  most  important  to  obtain  ab 
solutely  correct  copies  of  these  inscriptions. 

This  was  most  essential,  as  numerous  writers  had  formed 
their  opinions  not  on  the  original  inscriptions  but  on  very  in 
exact  copies,  inserted  in  some  of  those  books  that  had  been  pub 
lished  about  the  remains  of  Columbus.  Having  these  prints 
at  hand,  and  comparing  them  with  the  original  inscriptions,  I 
found  them  differing  very  much  from  the  originals  and  quite 
modernized  in  character.  Therefore  I  made  with  most  scrup 
ulous  care  those  copies,  reproductions  of  which  for  the  first 
time  were  published  in  my  book  "Amerika,  die  Geschichte  sei 
ner  Entdeckung,"  vol.  I,  p.  333  ,  and  which  are  presented  with 
this  essay. 


75 


Beginning  with  the  inscription  on  the  lid  of  the  coffin,  the 
question  now  arises:  do  the  letters  of  this  inscription  resem 
ble  the  letters  in  autographs  of  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  time  when  the  casket  and  its  inscriptions  are  sup 
posed  to  have  been  made?  By  reproducing  here  a  number  of 


Spanish   autographs  of  the    16th   century. 

Francisco  Pizarro.  Luys  Hernandez  de   Biedma. 

Francisco  Vasquez  de    Coronado.  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon. 

Antonio  de  Mendoza.  Hernando  Cortes. 

Hernando  de  Soto. 


7G 

autographs  of  famous  Spaniards,  who  lived  during  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  enahle  the  reader  to  judge  this 
question  for  himself.  It  will  he  easy  for  him  to  point  out  every 
single  letter  of  the  casket's  inscriptions  also  in  these  auto 
graphs.  I  wish  to  call  attention  especially  to  the  peculiar  shape 
the  letter  r  has  in  the  inscription  upon  the  top  of  the  casket. 
Tt  resembles  a  modern  x.  We  find  tlie  same  character  standing 
for  the  letter  r  in  the  autographs  of  Francisco  Pizarro  and 
Hernandez  de  Biedma.  It  appears  also  in  autographs  of  Her- 
nando  Cortes,  King  Ferdinand  and  many  other  prominent 
Spaniards  of  the  16th  century. 

As  has  been  noticed  before,  the  inscription  upon  the  lower 
side  of  the  lid  is  in  German  Gothic  letters.  Spanish  authorities 
claimed  that  during  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  in 
Spain  no  Gothic  but  only  Roman  letters  had  been  in  use  and 
that  therefore  these  German  Gothic  letters  be  regarded  as  an 
other  proof  of  fraud.  This  assertion  is  absolutely  false.  As 
is  generally  known,  the  art  of  printing  with  movable  types  was 
invented  by  Johannes  Gutenberg  at  Mayence  in  Germany. 
From  that  city  it  was  carried  by  German  printers  to  almost  all 
other  parts  of  Europe.  As  Conrad  Schweinsheim  (Sweyn- 
heym)  and  Arnold  Pannarts  in  1467  introduced  printing  in 
Italy  ,  so  it  was  brought  by  German  printers  to  Spain.  Many 
volumes  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  15th  and  the  first  half  of  the 
16th  centuries,  now  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  "Hispanic 
Society  of  America"  at  New  York,  prove  by  their  printer's 
marks,  that  Peter  Braim  and  Nicholas  Spindler  ("Petro  Bru 
no  a  Nicholas  Spindeler  Germanice  natois")  ran  in  1478  a 
printing  office  in  Barcelona.  The  book-marks  "Fredericu  ba- 
siliensem  Germanice  nationis"  and  "Henrico  aleman"  disclose 
that  Friedrich  von  Basel  and  Heinrich  der  Deutsche  at  the 
same  time  have  published  books  in  Burgos.  The  names  "Pau- 
lus  de  Colonia  Alemanus"  (Paulus  of  Cologne),  "Johanes 
pegniczer  de  Nureberga"  (Johannes  Pegnitzer  from  Nurn- 
berg) ,  Magnus  and  Thomas  Alemanos,  and  Meinardus  Ungut 
are  to  be  found  frequently  in  books  printed  at  the  end  of  the 
15th  century  in  Seville.  At  the  beginning  of  the  16th  century 
we  find  in  Zaragoza  Georg  Koch  ("Georgius  Coci  theuto- 


o 

g. 

2. 

8- 


78 

nic")  ;  Paul  Hums  from  Constanz  ("Pauli  hurus,  Costan- 
ciens.  Germanice  nacionis")  ;  Leonard  Huetz  ("Leonardu 
hutz")  ;  Wolf  Appentegger  ("Lupum  appetegger  Germanice 
nationis")  and  Johann  Giesser  ("Joanne  gysser  alemanu  de 
Silgenstat" ) .  Toledo  had  become  the  home  in  1500  of  Peter 
Hagenbach  ("Pedro  Hagenbach")  ;  in  Valencia  printing  of 
fices  were  run  by  Christopher  Kaufman  ("Cristobal  Cofman) 
and  Johann  Rosenbach  "Alamany".  Almost  all  the  volumes, 
produced  by  these  men  are  in  German  Gothic  types.  It  may 
be  mentioned  here  that  also  several  editions  of  the  famous  let 
ter,  in  which  Columbus  in  1493,  after  his  return  from  his  first 
voyage,  announced  his  discoveries,  are  printed  in  Gothic  types. 
The  very  first  one,  most  probably  printed  in  Barcelona,  may 
have  been  printed  by  Peter  Braun  or  Nicholas  Spindeler. 

While  during  the  16th  century  the  use  of  Roman  types 
became  more  and  more  preponderant  in  Spain,  Gothic  types 
nevertheless  remained  in  use.  Just  as  to-day  they  were  fre 
quently  used  in  composing  the  title  pages  of  books,  as  for  in 
stance  of  Oviedo's  "Natural  Historia  de  las  Indias,"  printed 
in  1526  at  Toledo;  or  of  "Coronica  del  muy  esforcado  y  inven- 
cible  cavallero  el  Cid,"  printed  in  the  same  year  at  the  same 
place.  Volumes  published  in  Spain  during  the  16th  century 
and  set  throughout  in  Gothic  types  are  the  "Cronica  d'Ara- 
gon"  (Valencia,  1524),  the  "Cronica  del  Rey  Don  Rodrigo" 
(Seville,  1520)  and  others.  Editions  of  the  Cid,  and  of  the 
works  of  Juan  Boscan  and  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  printed  at 
Medina  del  Campo  in  1544  and  at  Granada  in  1561,  have  also 
title-pages  in  Gothic  types.  Copies  of  these  books  are  preserv 
ed  in  the  Museum  of  the  "Hispanic  Society  of  America." 

The  strongest  point  in  the  objections  of  the  Spanish  his 
torians  against  the  authenticity  of  the  remains  in  Santo  Do 
mingo  is  that  the  lettering  "D.  de  la  A."  upon  the  top  of  the 
lid  implies  a  use  of  the  word  "America."  They  argue  that  in 
1540,  the  time  when  the  remains  of  Columbus  are  supposed  to 
have  been  transferred  to  Santo  Domingo,  this  term  was  not 
recognized  in  Spain,  the  term  "the  Indias"  being  universally 
used. 


79 

Now,  it  is  an  open  question,  if  the  above  letters  were  really 
intended  to  express  the  words  "Descubridor  de  la  America." 
J.  C.  Brevoort  in  his  essay  "Where  are  the  remains  of  Colum 
bus?"  (Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  II,  1878,  p.  161) 
says:  "The  Diario  de  la  Marina  suggests  that  the  letters  "D. 
de  la  A."  may  signify  "Descubridor  de  la  America,"  although 
the  name  had  not  been  given  to  this  continent.  It  is  probable 
that  they  signify  "Dignidad  de  la  Almirantazgo"  connected 
as  they  were  with  the  next  words  of  "Primer  Almirante"  This 
title  was  prized  by  Columbus  most  highly,  and  the  last  words 
would  at  the  time  have  been  unmeaning  without  the  letters  pre 
ceding  it." 

While  quoting  this  explanation,  I  wish  to  state,  however, 
that  the  name  "America,"  first  proposed  in  1507  by  the  Ger 
man  cosmographer  Waldseeimiller  in  his  "Cosmographies  In- 
troductio,"  and  first  placed  on  his  map  of  the  world,  had  been 
accepted  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  16th  century  by  many 
European  scholars.  Schoener  inscribed  it  in  1515  on  a  globe 
he  had  made.  Joachim  Watt,  or  Vadianus,  used  the  name 
America  in  the  same  year  also.  Stobnicza  in  Cracovia  did  the 
same  in  1519  in  his  "Introductio  in  Ptolemei  Cosmographia." 
Apianus  inscribed  it  in  1520  on  his  "Mappa  Mondo."  So  did 
Laurentius  Frisius  in  an  edition  of  "Ptolemy  Cosmographia" 
of  1522;  also  Mercator  in  1541.  Phrysius  in  his  work  "De  prin- 
cipiis  astronomise,"  published  in  1530  at  Antwerp,  devoted  a 
whole  chapter  to  "America."  We  find  the  name  also  in  Mini 
ster's  "Novus  Orbis"  of  1532,  and  in  Honter's  "Rudimentorum 
cosmographiffi  libri"  of  1534.  As  there  was  a  constant  inter 
change  of  thoughts  and  observations  among  the  cosmographers 
of  Germany,  Holland,  France,  Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy, 
and  as  especially  the  editions  of  Ptolemy  found  distribution 
over  all  Europe,  we  must  assume  that  the  name  "America" 
was  in  1541  known  and  used  by  Spanish  scholars  and  writers 
also.  Indeed,  the  "Primera  Parte  de  las  Diferencias  de  Libros 
que  ay  en  el  Universe"  of  Alexio  Vanegas  de  Busto,  printed  at 
Toledo  in  1546,  designate  the  new  parts  as  "America." 


80 


THE  LITTLE  SILVER  PLATE. 

Of  especial  interest  to  me  was  the  little  silver  plate  found, 
like  the  two  small  screws,  among  the  mold  at  the  bottom  of  the 
coffin.  These  screws  correspond  exactly  with  the  two  holes  in 
the  plate  as  well  as  in  the  back  wall  of  the  coffin.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  little  plate  was  originally  fastened  on  the 
inside  of  the  coffin.  But  in  time  the  oxidizing  of  the  lead  caus 
ed  the  screws  to  become  loose  and  to  fall  down,  together  with 
the  plate. 


Inscription  on  front  of  the  little  silver  plate.     Exact  size. 
Copied  by  R.  Cronau,  January  11,  1891. 


Inscription  on  back  of  the  little  silver  plate.     Exact  size. 
Copied  by  R.  Cronau,  January  11,  1891. 

Very  curiously,  this  plate  has  inscriptions  on  either  side. 
As  already  stated,  the  short  inscription  has  been  read  by  some 
as:  "Urna  Cristoval  Colon" — ("Coffin  of  Christopher  Colum 
bus")  .  The  longer  inscription  has  been  interpreted  by  some  as 
meaning:  "Urna  pertenciente  de  los  restos  del  primer  Almi- 
rante  Don  Cristobal  Colon"  Others  have  suggested  the  trans 
lation:  "Ultima  parte  de  los  restos  del  primer  Almirante 
Cristoval  Colon,  Descubridor"  ("The  last  parts  of  the  remains 
of  the  first  Admiral  Christopher  Columbus,  the  Discoverer"). 


81 

While  I  found  no  reason  to  object  to  the  interpretation  sug 
gested  for  the  last  inscription,  I  can  not  agree  to  the  transla 
tion  of  the  shorter  inscription  as  meaning  "Urna  Cristoval 
Colon."  I  am  much  more  inclined  to  believe  that  the  engraver 
originally  intended  to  express  in  the  short  inscription  the  same 
idea  as  he  has  expressed  in  the  longer  one,  namely  "Ultima 
parte."  But  he  may  have  found  his  first  attempt  unsatisfac 
tory  because  it  did  not  seem  intelligible  enough  on  account  of 
its  too  great  brevity.  Accordingly  he  engraved  the  more  ela 
borate  inscription  on  the  other  side  to  make  sure  that  the  read 
ing  would  be  more  easily  understood  in  later  centuries.  Indeed, 
it  would  seem  senseless  to  write  on  both  sides  of  a  plate,  one 
side  of  which  was  always  invisible  because  turned  toward  the 
wall  of  the  coffin. 

That  this  explanation  may  be  correct,  seems  to  be  proven 
by  the  fact  that  in  the  short  inscription  a  small  p  is  to  be  seen 
enclosed  within  the  capital  letter  C  of  "Cristobal."  Probably 
this  letter  was  intended  to  stand  for  the  word  "parte."  Objec 
tion  has  been  also  raised  that  the  letter  s  in  the  name  "Cristo 
val"  in  the  short  inscription  of  the  silver  plate  is  not  of  the 
kind  in  vogue  during  the  sixteenth  century,  and  hence  the  in 
scription  must  be  spurious.  That  this  view  is  erroneous  also 
has  been  proved  by  Frederick  A.  Ober,  who  as  a  special  com 
missioner  was  sent  in  1891  by  the  directors  of  the  World's  Co 
lumbian  Exposition  to  the  West  Indies,  to  collect  material  re 
lated  to  the  time  of  discovery.  In  his  book  "In  the  Wake  of 
Columbus"  Ober  reproduces  on  page  378  a  page  of  a  book  of 
baptisms  in  the  cathedral  of  Santo  Domingo,  bearing  date 
1591.  On  this  page  the  same  form  of  s  is  used  in  the  name 
Cristoval  Rodriguez  as  well  as  in  other  names. 

Another  objection  has  been  raised  by  Spanish  historians 
to  the  spelling  of  the  name  Cristoval,  which,  it  is  insisted, 
should  be  Christoval,  having  the  letter  h.  This  objection  is  re 
jected  by  Archbishop  Rocco  Cocchia  in  his  book  "Cristoforo 
Colombo  e  le  sue  ceneri,"  where  he  states  that  during  the  16th 
century  the  name  Cristoval  appears  in  many  various  spellings, 
as  for  instance:  Cristoval,  Cristoual,  Cristobal,  Christoval, 
Christoual,  Christobal,  xpval,  xpbal,  xpoul,  xpoval,  xpoual, 
xptoval,  xptoual,  xptobal  and  xperristoval. 


82 

John  Boyd  Thacher  in  his  great  work  on  Columbus  (vol. 
Ill,  p.  606)  hints  "that  the  inscriptions  on  the  coffin  were  per 
haps  not  made  by  a  Spaniard  or  by  the  direction  of  a  Span 
iard."  Such  a  possibility  must  be  admitted,  when  we  remem 
ber  the  many  German  printers  living  in  Spain  during  the  15th 
and  16th  centuries,  as  I  have  shown.  Seville  had  several  of 
them.  Consequently  we  may  assume  that  there  were  living  in 
Seville  also  German  craftsmen  able  to  cut  types,  which  they 
supplied  to  these  printers.  It  may  be  that  one  of  those  Ger 
man  craftsmen  was  commissioned  by  the  heirs  of  Columbus  to 
engrave  the  inscriptions  on  the  coffin  and  on  the  little  silver 
plate. 

A  few  words  may  be  said  about  the  inscriptions  in  general. 
The  removal  of  the  remains  of  Christopher  Columbus  and  his 
son  Diego  from  Spain  to  Santo  Domingo  took  place,  as  may 
be  judged  from  the  last  royal  provision  of  November  1540, 
some  time  after  that  date.  As  at  that  time  the  original  coffins 
may  have  been  already  in  delapidated  condition,  it  became  ad 
visable  to  collect  that  which  remained  of  the  two  bodies  for  con 
venience  sake  into  two  small  leaden  cases  which  could  be  stored 
easily  into  the  ship's  hold.  These  cases  wrere  probably  of  the 
same  size.  Now,  can  it  be  imagined  that  the  case  of  such  an 
illustrious  man  as  the  discoverer  of  the  New  World  should  have 
been  left  without  any  visible  marks  or  inscriptions  by  means 
of  which  an  identification  might  be  possible  and  mistakes  avoid 
ed?  This  thought  must  be  strongly  rejected.  It  is  only  natural 
that  the  case  in  which  the  ashes  of  the  great  Admiral  were 
placed  was  distinguished  by  some  fitting  inscriptions  which 
might  enable  easy  identification  not  only  after  their  arrival  in 
Santo  Domingo  but  also  in  later  centuries.  As  the  official  doc 
ument  set  up  in  1795,  when  the  Spaniards  emptied  the  vault 
in  the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Domingo,  does  not  mention  any 
mark  or  inscriptions  on  the  leaden  plates  taken  from  that  tomb, 
it  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  the  strongest  proof  that  this 
vault  never  enclosed  the  ashes  of  America's  discoverer,  but 
those  of  his  son  Diego,  whose  remains  had  been  transferred  to 
Santo  Domingo  at  the  same  time. 


83 

THE  BULLET  IN  THE  CASE. 

Mention  should  be  made  also  of  the  bullet  that  had  been 
found  among  the  human  remains.  While  several  authors  have 
ignored  its  existence  entirely,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  may  be  re 
garded  as  an  important  piece  of  evidence  in  this  peculiar  case. 

Describing  in  a  letter  of  July  7,  1503,  the  awful  hardships 
of  his  fourth  and  last  voyage,  Columbus  writes:  "While  all 
men  of  the  crew  in  their  extreme  exhaustion  longed  to  die  to  be 
released  of  their  sufferings,  my  wound  opened  again,  (quini 
se  me  rinfresco  del  mate  la  piago) ,  and  for  nine  days  all  hope 
was  gone  to  keep  me  alive." 

These  words  evidently  show  that  Columbus  during  some 
former  period  of  his  life  had  been  wounded.  As  he  was  not 
wounded  during  one  of  his  voyages  to  the  New  World,  we 
must  assume  that  this  happened  during  the  times  when  he  was 
closely  allied  to  the  Columbi,  two  corsairs  which  during  the 
second  half  of  the  15th  century  were  the  terror  bf  the  Euro 
pean  seas.  Venetian  State  papers  of  the  years  1468  to  1485 
refer  quite  often  to  these  pirates,  especially  to  Colombo  the 
younger,  who  under  the  name  Nicolo  Griego  became  the  most 
daring  of  sea-robbers.  In  1485  he  engaged,  off  Cape  St.  Vin 
cent,  four  great  Venetian  galleys.  The  dreadful  contest  raged 
for  twenty-four  hours  and  ended  with  a  complete  victory  for 
the  pirates.  Ferdinand  Columbus,  to  whom  we  owe  a  biogra 
phy  of  his  father,  the  discoverer,  boasts  of  his  father's  share  in 
this  engagement.  For  how  many  years  Christopher  Columbus 
took  part  in  such  affairs  of  his  relatives,  we  do  not  know.  But 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  during  one  of  those  adventurous 
trips  he  may  have  received  a  gunshot,  and  that  the  ball  re 
mained  in  his  body  till  his  end.  Firearms,  guns  and  pistols 
were  well  known  in  the  middle  of  the  15th  century  all  over 
Europe,  especially  in  France  and  Italy.* )  That  gun-balls  very 


*)  It  may  be  not  out  of  order  to  mention  here  that  the  date  and  circumstances 
of  the  introduction  of  portable  firearms  are  involved  in  obscurity.     While  in  Ger 
many   the   invention   of   gunpowder   is   ascribed   to   a   monk,    Bertholdus   Schwartz, 
about    1320,   the   Encyclopedia  Britannica    in    its   article   about   gun-powder   says: 


84 

often  remain  in  the  bodies  of  wounded  persons  through  their 
whole  lifetime,  and  that  wounds  made  by  sueh  bullets  tend  to 
break  out  again  sometimes,  is  also  well  known.  Therefore  it 
is  not  impossible  that  the  ball  found  in  the  case  of  the  Admiral 
had  remained  in  his  body,  caused  fresh  breaking  out  of  his 
wound  in  1504  and  became  free  later  after  Columbus  had  died 
and  his  corpse  fell  into  decay. 

If  fraud  was  committed  by  Bishop  Rocco  Cocchia,  as  the 
Spanish  authorities  would  have  us  believe,  what  reasons  could 
have  induced  him  to  place  in  the  casket  a  ball  that  to  my 
knowledge  was  never  brought  in  any  connection  with  the  above 
mentioned  part  of  the  letter  Columbus  wrote  to  the  king  dur 
ing  his  fourth  voyage? 

To  sum  up,  all  evidences  point  most  strongly  to  the  proba 
bility,  that  Lieutenant-General  Aristizabal,  in  1795,  while 
searching  for  the  remains  of  Christopher  Columbus,  opened 
not  the  vault  of  the  Admiral  but  that  of  his  son  Diego,  buried 
only  a  few  inches  apart  from  his  father.  This  mistake  hap 
pened,  as  he  was  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  there  were  two  vaults 
close  together,  and  furthermore  that,  as  Moreau  de  St.  Mery 
had  stated  only  a  few  years  before,  "not  a  mausoleum,  nor  a 
monument,  not  even  an  inscription,"  indicated  where  the  true 
resting  place  of  Christopher  Columbus  was. 


"There  is  a  treatise  on  gun-powder  in  the  library  of  the  Escorial,  written  about 
1250,  which  appears  to  describe  both  rockets  and  shells.  The  Arabians  are,  from 
this  and  other  authorities,  supposed  to  have  enclosed  combustible  or  explosive  com 
positions  in  hollow  globes  of  iron,  which  were  discharged  upon  the  foe  either  by 
hand,  like  the  modern  grenade,  or  from  the  warlike  machines  then  in  use.  It  has 
also  been  stated  that  toward  the  close  of  the  13th  century  they  projected  small  balls 
from  tubes  carried  in  the  hand,  or  attached  to  the  end  of  a  lance,  and  only  used  at 
close  quarters  being  in  fact  hand-guns."  Petrarch,  about  the  year  1344  in  his  di- 
alogu,es  "De  remediis  utriusque  fortunae"  also  speaks  of  "brazen  globes  cast  forth 
by  the  force  of  flame  with  a  horrible  sound  of  thunder." 

In  England  guns  and  gun-powder  were  known  in  1346.  In  "Archaeologia,"  pub 
lished  by  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  vol.  XXXII,  page  379,  there  is  an  article 
which  cites  payments  by  King  Edward  III  to  William  de  Stanes  for  salpetre  and 
sulphur  supplied  by  him  to  Thomas  de  Roldeston  "for  the  King's  use  for  his  guns." 
And  the  Encycl.  Brit,  states  that  in  1375  men  armed  with  "gunnes"  made  an 
attack  on  a  Yorkshire  manor  house. 


85 


After  my  investigations  in  the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Do 
mingo  were  concluded,  the  authorities,  who  during  my  work 
had  remained  present,  replaced  the  casket  and  its  contents 
in  the  glass  box.  This  was  wound  about  with  a  new  ribbon  in 
the  colors  of  the  Dominican  Republic,  red,  white  and  blue.  Af 
ter  this  ribbon  had  again  been  put  under  the  seals  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  the  Church  and  the  several  Consuls,  the  case  was  re 
turned  to  the  cell  from  which  it  had  been  taken.  Notaries  who 
had  been  called  read  the  report  they  had  made.  After  it  had 
been  properly  signed,  the  assemblage  departed. 

The  results  of  my  investigations,  together  with  all  copies 
of  the  inscriptions  on  the  coffin  were  in  1892  published  in  my 
book  "Amerika,  die  Geschichte  seiner  Entdeckung"  as  well 
as  in  the  Spanish  edition  "America,  historia  de  su  descubri- 
miento."  The  latter  edition  appeared  in  Barcelona.  It  seems, 
however,  that  the  Spanish  authorities  utterly  ignored  this  pub 
lication,  for,  in  January,  1899,  when  Cuba  had  become  a  repub 
lic,  they  once  more  with  great  pomp  removed  the  supposed  re 
mains  of  Columbus  from  the  Cathedral  of  Havana,  this  time 
taking  them  to  Spain,  where  they  were  given  sepulchre  in  the 
magnificent  cathedral  of  Seville.  An  elaborate  monument, 
showing  four  ministrant  boys  in  full  life  size,  carrying  a  mag 
nificent  sarcophagus,  marks  the  place  where  rest  those  rem 
nants  which  the  Spaniards  still  claim  to  be  the  genuine  ones  of 
Christopher  Columbus. 


86 


WHAT  TWO  AMERICAN  JURISTS  SAY. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here,  to  reproduce  the  views 
of  two  able  American  jurists,  who  became  interested  in  this 
peculiar  question,  studied  the  same  and  published  their  find 
ings.  John  Gilmary  Shea  in  the  "Magazine  of  American  His 
tory"  for  January  1883,  has  criticised  the  methods  of  the 
Spanish  writers  to  uphold  the  claim  of  Havana  and  to  impeach 
the  discovery  made  in  Santo  Domingo  in  1 877  by  assailing  the 
character  of  Bishop  Rocco  Cocchia  and  presenting  him  as  an 
impostor.  He  says:  "These  advocates  on  the  Spanish  side 
adopt  a  system  which  we,  at  a  distance,  and  with  nothing  to 
bias  us  in  favor  of  either  side,  cannot  recognize  as  just  or 
sound,  for  at  the  great  bar  of  historical  criticism  both  sides 
must  be  held  to  the  same  rule  of  evidence.  But  they  insist  on 
everything  being  taken  for  granted  in  regard  to  the  excavation 
of  1785,  and  they  not  only  impeach  all  the  evidence  of  that  of 
1877,  but  they  even  assail  the  good  faith  of  all  concerned,  and 
fail  to  produce  even  presumptive  proof.  The  vault  found  in 
1795  must,  according  to  them,  be  regarded  as  unquestionable 
ancient;  but  that  found  in  1877  requires  proof  of  its  age,  Seiior 
Prieto  stating  "my  opinion  is  that  it  has  riot  the  antiquity 
supposed."  There  was  no  inscription  of  any  kind  with  the  re 
mains  taken  up  in  1795,  but  they  must  be  conceded  to  be  those 
of  Christopher  Columbus,  while  those  found  in  1877  are  false 
because  they  have  an  inscription.  Those  concerned  in  the  ex 
amination  in  1795,  we  are  required  to  believe,  acted  in  perfect 
faith,  free  from  all  pious  fraud,  and  imbued  with  unerring  ac 
curacy,  while  they  insist  on  our  regarding  all  concerned  in  the 
affair  of  1877  as  impostors  and  authors  of  a  pious  fraud.  This 
course  cannot  be  admitted.  What  one  side  is  required  to  prove, 
the  other  is  under  equal  obligation  to  support  by  evidence.  A 
charge  of  fraud  must  be  sustained  by  evidence  or  such  a  train 
of  circumstances  as  to  admit  of  no  other  alternative.  There 
cannot  be  a  discrimination  made  between  the  two  parties." 

The  second  American  jurist  interested  in  this  case  is  Dr. 
Richard  H.  Clarke.  He  contributed  to  "Donahoe's  Magazine" 


87 

of  June  1893  an  article  "Where  is  Columbus  buried?"    From 
this  article  I  quote  the  following: 

"In  behalf  of  the  Spanish  claim  it  was  necessary,  in  the  face 
of  the  facts,  to  take  bold  and  high  ground.  Hence  they  attack 
the  veracity  and  good  faith  of  Archbishop  Cocchia,  represent 
ing  him  as  an  impostor,  the  perpetrator  of  an  audacious  fraud, 
and  allege  that  under  the  pious  pretext  of  contributing  to  the 
canonization  of  Columbus,  he  and  his  confederates  were  "the 
authors  and  accomplices  of  a  pious  fraud."  While  Archbishop 
Cocchia  must  be  here  regarded  as  the  chief  witness  of  certain 
facts,  he  is  certainly  entitled  to  that  measure  of  credibility 
which,  upon  well-known  principles  of  human  nature  and  of 
moral  philosophy,  as  well  as  upon  the  laws  of  evidence  familiar 
in  every  court  of  justice,  is  extended  to  every  witness.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  assail  the  testimony  of  a  dignified  gentleman  of 
unquestionable  character  and  of  high  personal  and  official 
worth.  It  is  necessary  to  adduce  competent  evidence  to  sustain 
such  assertions.  I  must  say  that  the  reports,  documents  and 
general  literature  before  me  give  no  such  proofs.  Nor  can  I 
find  anything  to  sustain  the  charge  itself  that  the  remains  ex 
humed  in  1877  were  lacking  in  antiquity.  The  official  and 
solemn  declaration  of  all  the  distinguished  persons  present,  set 
ting  forth  the  facts,  establish  the  contrary. 

With  absolute  impartiality  I  have  examined  the  testimony 
and  voluminous  writings  on  both  sides  of  this  controversy,  and 
the  facts  and  arguments.  The  question  is  really  narrowed 
down  by  the  established  laws  of  evidence.  The  historical  fact 
is  well  established,  and  it  is  conceded  by  the  Spanish  advocates 
of  Havana,  that  the  remains  of  Columbus  had  been  deposited 
in  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Cathedral  of  San  Domingo,  on  the 
right  or  Gospel  side  of  the  altar.  By  the  rules  of  evidence,  a 
state  of  facts  or  conditions  of  things  once  established  or  admit 
ted,  is  legally  presumed  to  continue  until  a  different  one  is  prov 
ed  or  admitted.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  remains  of  Columbus 
are  presumed  still  to  repose  in  the  Cathedral  of  San  Domingo, 
unless  the  advocates  of  the  Cathedral  of  Havana  can  prove  in 
contestable  their  subsequent  removal  to  Havana.  Now  what 
proof  is  there  of  such  a  removal?  The  contents  of  a  grave,  con 
taining  human  remains,  were  certainly  removed  in  1795.  But 
there  was  no  leaden  case,  only  fragments  of  lead  showing  there 


88 

may  have  been  one  formerly.  There  was  no  plate  bearing  a 
name  or  ah  inscription,  and  the  grave  was  unmarked.  There 
was  nothing  to  show  whose  remains  they  were.  Even  the  offi 
cial  act  or  document  made  on  the  occasion  pointedly  and  sig 
nificantly  refrains  from  mentioning  whose  remains  they  were. 

The  remains  of  the  great  Admiral  were  transported  about 
the  year  1541  to  the  New  World  he  had  discovered,  and  buried 
on  the  right  hand  or  gospel  side  of  the  grand  altar  of  the  Cath 
edral  of  San  Domingo,  and  there  they  reposed  unquestioned 
until  1795,  when  the  Spanish  Government  and  the  Duke  of 
Veragua  immediately  and  hastily,  on  the  conclusion  of  the 
Treaty  of  Basle,  and  to  avoid  the  complications  of  leaving 
them  on  other  than  Spanish  soil,  undertook  their  removal.  In 
the  haste  of  the  removal  no  other  grave  in  that  sanctuary  was 
thought  of  but  that  of  Columbus,  and  the  first  grave  found  on 
the  Gospel  side  was  taken  to  be  his,  and  the  remains  were  im 
mediately  removed  to  Havana.  There  was  no  inscription  by 
which  to  identify  the  remains,  and  yet  should  other  graves  be 
afterward  found  under  the  sanctuary,  or  should  another  grave 
be  found  on  the  Gospel  side  and  especially  under  the  bishop's 
chair,  what  authenticity  could  attach  to  the  remains  removed 
to  Havana?  But — still  stronger — what  if  another  grave  should 
be  found  thus  located,  bearing  equal  evidences  of  antiquity,  and 
containing  five  separate  and  distinct  inscriptions  stating  in  un 
mistakable  language  that  they  were  the  remains  of  Christopher 
Columbus?  Yet  all  these  were  found  in  1877.  Mr.  Greenleaf, 
in  his  great  work  on  the  laws  of  evidence,  states  that  the  evi 
dence  derived  from  ancient  tombs  and  the  inscriptions  thereon 
stands  in  the  very  first  rank  of  proof  in  the  court  of  justice. 
But  see  the  corroborating  circumstances:  first,  its  location  just 
where  Columbus  had  been  buried;  second,  the  finding  of  the 
grave  of  Luis  Columbus  on  the  Epistle  side,  just  were  it  had 
been  buried;  third,  the  finding  of  the  empty  grave  of  Diego 
Columbus,  just  where  it  had  been  located;  thus  completing  the 
identification  of  the  grave  of  the  three  Columbuses ;  fourth,  the 
remnants  of  corroded  leaden  plates  in  the  grave  of  Diego, 
showing  that  there  had  also  been  an  inscription  there,  while  the 
other  two  graves  are  clearly  identified  by  appropriate  inscrip- 


89 

lions  of  Columbus  and  Luis  Columbus ;  fifth,  the  high  and  un 
impeachable  character  of  the  archbishop  and  other  officials 
making  the  discovery  and  certifying  it  to  the  world;  sixth,  the 
witnesses  called,  in  the  persons  of  the  consuls  of  foreign  na 
tions,  to  see  and  certify  to  the  whole  proceeding;  seventh,  the 
absence  of  all  proof  or  identification  of  the  remains  removed  in 
1795  as  those  of  Columbus;  eighth,  the  judgment  of  learned 
historians  and  experts  in  favor  of  San  Domingo ;  ninth  the  cur 
rent  and  living  acquiescence  of  the  world,  as  manifested  by  the 
fact  that,  when  antiquarians,  students,  officials,  historians  or 
tourists  start  out  to  visit  and  pay  homage  to  the  illustrious  man 
who  discovered  America,  they  go  directly  to  San  Domingo,  and 
there  only." 

Fully  agreeing  with  the  views  of  these  two  jurists,  I  wish 
to  express  herewith  my  conviction,  that  if  humanity  will  pay 
homage  to  the  remains  of  the  discoverer  of  Americ'a,  the  only 
place  to  do  so  is  the  Cathedral  at  Santo  Domingo. 

*         * 

Some  time  after  my  visit  the  Junta  Nacional  Columbiana, 
a  committee  of  leading  citizens  of  the  Dominican  republic,  took 
steps  to  erect  a  worthy  mausoleum  for  the  discoverer  of  Amer 
ica.  Forty-five  feet  high,  and  richly  decorated  with  has  reliefs, 
statues,  historical  groups,  this  mausoleum  is  placed  in  an  in 
geniously  and  artistically  constructed  crypt  under  the  old 
cathedral,  a  monument  of  befitting  magnificence.  The  central 
figure  is  the  Indian  personification  of  the  island  Santo  Domin 
go,  Quisqueya,  guarding  the  ashes  of  Columbus. 


LIST   OF  MAPS  AND   ILLUSTRATIONS 


Maps 

1.  Map  of  Waiting's  Island. 

2.  Track  of  Columbus  from  Guanahani  to  Cuba. 

3.  Outlines   of   the   various   islands,   suggested   by   former 
students  of  the  Guanahani-question. 

4.  Part  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa's  map  (Anno  1500). 

5.  Part  of  a  map  in  the  Royal  Library  of  Turin   (1523). 

6.  Part  of  Diego  Ribero's  map  (1529). 

7.  Part  of  Pierre  Descelier's  map  (1546). 

8.  Part  of  a  map  in1  the  Atlas  of  Batiste  Agnese   (about 
1550). 

9.  Part  of  a  Portuguese  map  in  Florence  (about  1560). 

10.  Part  of  a  map  in  the  Cartas  de  Indias  (1560). 

11.  Part  of  Thomas  Hood's  map  (1592). 

12.  Part  of  Antonio  de  Herrera's  map  (1601). 

13.  Part  of  Antony  Jacobsz  West  Indian  Paskaert  (1621). 

14.  Map  of  the  Western  part  of  Saometo — Crooked  Island. 

Illustrations  from  Photographs  and  Drawings  by  the  Author 

15.  Riding  Rock  Bay,  the  place  of  Columbus's  Landfall. 

16.  Tongue  of  Land  described  by  Columbus  in  his  diary, 
under  the  date  of  October  14,  1492,  as  seen  from  the  west. 

17.  The  same  tongue  of  land,  seen  from  the  south-east. 

18.  Cannon  of  the  17th  century. 

19.  Profiles  of  various  islands  of  the  Bahama  archipelago. 

20.  Cape  St.  Maria,  the  northern  point  of  Fernandina  or 
Yuma. 

21.  The  Presbytery  of  the  Cathedral  in  Santo  Domingo. 

22.  Original  plan  of  the  sanctuary. 

23.  The  coffin  of  Columbus. 

24.  The  lid  of  the  coffin. 

25 — 29.     The  inscriptions  on  the  coffin,  copied  by  the  author 

and  reproduced  in  exact  size. 
30 — 35.     Autographs  of  the  16th  century,  showing  those  of 

Pizarro,  Cortes,  Coronado,  Ponce  de  Leon,  Biedma, 

Mendoza  and  De  Soto. 


- 


r*  o 


